Mystery
Gone to Jericho
Where's the king? Gone to Jericho.
Private, don't visit
- What's there
- Private Georgian house beside a medieval priory church
- Legend from
- Tudor
- Tone
- Light-hearted
Blackmore ahead. When Henry VIII vanished from court, they said he had gone to Jericho, and this is where Jericho was.
Next to Blackmore's priory church stood Jericho, a moated house where Henry VIII is said to have met his mistress Elizabeth Blount. In 1519 she gave birth there to Henry Fitzroy, the king's only acknowledged illegitimate son. Local tradition says that when the king slipped away to Blackmore, his courtiers would explain his absence by saying he had gone to Jericho, and the stream nearby was even nicknamed the River Jordan. A Georgian house now stands on the site. Locals also say the Bull Inn was the king's stable block.