Marks Hall - A Christmas Eve Tragedy

A twilight view of the Cradle House from Ladle Meadow.

John Gray was a shepherd on the Marks Hall estate when it was owned by Thomas Phillips Price.  He lived with his wife and children in an out-of the-way farm called Crowlands, a place of small thick-hedged fields and sheltered to the rear by Little Monk Wood. Nothing is left of it today but its two ponds, one was used to supply the animals and the other had always provided drinking water for the farm's human occupants.  Mr Price encouraged the family to move into the old farm so that John’s wife, Ellen, could look after the poultry which supplied the hall with eggs and meat.  When they moved in, Price had a well dug to supply their drinking water, as Ellen absolutely refused to move there if she had to take water from the pond. When one of the staff brought an order up from the house, birds would be slaughtered and prepared and John would take them down to the hall using the footbridge across Robins Brook (its modern replacement is still there).  Like many shepherds, John had a way with all animals and even in his old age people would bring their sick and ailing pets to him for advice and for his home-made medicines.

John Gray, the Marks Hall shepherd

However this story is about the tragic events of Christmas 1902.
John had permission to shoot rabbits on the estate and on Christmas Eve 1902, with a family to feed, he was out with his gun in Well Field, where it runs alongside a plantation then known as Well Field Plantation or Nursery Wood but called by my generation, Second Wood.  The field is to the left of the lane running from Kilns Hill down to the old Markshall Rectory - if you could go back more than two hundred years you would find a group of cottages huddled there.

Spotting a rabbit, John took aim and shot it but then came a scream and the sound of something or someone crashing through the branches of a tree and falling heavily to the ground.  A woman's voice called out desperately for help so he made his way through the trees towards her.  Nearby, David Shelley also heard the woman's cries and both men arrived to find young Emma Cowlin kneeling beside the body of her husband, George. Lying nearby was the top of a fir tree.  Emma told them that George had climbed the tree and cut off the top for a Christmas tree for their daughter, three-year-old Winifred.

George Cowlin
George came round and knew at once that his back was broken.  A hurdle was brought and as carefully as possible John and David lifted him on top and carried him home to the Cradle House.  As they did George cried out,  ‘Oh my poor little daughter!’  Dr Caldwell was called and confimed what everyone suspected, George's back was broken, he was totally paralysed and there was nothing to be done.  George’s condition worsened over Christmas Day and he died on Boxing day, 26th December 1902, he was twenty-five years old.

At the Coroner's Court Emma was called and although ‘much affected’ described the circumstances of the accident. PC Lambert produced the top of the fir tree and had calculated that the deceased had fallen 62 feet.  A verdict of accidental death was recorded and the Coroner and Jury expressed ‘deep sympathy to the bereaved wife and child’.  John Gray was convinced that it was the sound of his gunshot which had made George lose his grip and always blamed himself for what had happened.

George Cowlin's poignant iron memorial in Markshall churchyard.

'How brief is life, few years had passed as he in manhoods pride,
Stood at God's altar, pledged his vows, to his new wedded bride.'

Shepherd John Gray was my Great-Grandfather and  (as I only recently discovered)  the three-year-old Winifred was Douglas Judd’s Grandmother (many of Doug’s photos appear on this site).  The story was told in his family as it was in ours.  But Doug knows a bit more:
'In 1903 Emma re-married Steven Willsher and they moved to one of the pair of cottages on the corner of Robinsbridge Road and Mill Lane.  Win was living there when a photo was taken just down the road on the little bridge over the ford at Robin's Brook. Eventually she had four step-siblings, Margery, Phyllis, John and Stan.  She married my grandad, Bertie, and they had the house built on land now occupied by Homeweave House’.

The little girl in the centre with the darker hat is Winifred, 3 years old when her father died.
The Photo from Doug Judd was taken at Robinsbridge Ford in about 1906.

George Cowlin was buried at Markshall and when I last saw it some 30 years or so ago, his cast Iron memorial was upright and quite easy to read. David Evans, who often posts photos on the Coggeshall Facebook pages, kindly went up to Markshall churchyard recently to have a look but could not find it.  Any further information would be very welcome.

From Veronica Cowlin 'I am related to both families. I have heard various versions of this. It's great to have some more information. Well done Trev! Yes I looked recently and the old metal gravestone was not there. I will have to get in touch with someone at Marks hall and find out why. It was standing well last time I saw it.'
From Lisa Calvert 'Hi, I work there and am on the case. Lovely to read the comments really brings the site alive.'
From Lisa Calvert 'I have now managed to have a chat with the team up here; the headstone is still in the graveyard under the tree.'

Marks Hall and the church from the Iron Bridge.
Only the bridge survives although the foundations of the church can easily be traced.   The iron memorial which marked George's grave (to the right of the church in this view) is apparently still in the churchyard (See Lisa Calvert's note above).
The site of the church and the churchyard is still consecrated land.

Trevor Disley
Christmas 2018, amended January 2019