Many of us are hugely enjoying Hilary Mantel’s long awaited final novel of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, The Mirror and the Light. Thomas Cromwell acquired the manor house that stood in Mortlake in 1536 when he was made a member of the House of Lords by Henry VIII. Cromwell spent some time in Mortlake before his death. It would have been a stretch of the river that was familiar to him as a Putney boy, son of a local blacksmith. The manor house has long since disappeared and is now buried under the brewery buildings east of Ship Lane. If the development goes ahead, a full archaeological survey of the site will take place before building works start. We can only hope that this may reveal new discoveries about life in Mortlake in Cromwell’s time. In the meantime, we have Hilary’s vivid account of the man to fall back on. Hilary came to Mortlake to meet Helen Deaton of the Barnes and Mortlake History Society in 2017. Hilary wanted to see for herself where Thomas Cromwell spent some of his time during the last few years of his life. Now that The Mirror and the Light is published, Helen has written about her meeting with Hilary.
Click here to read Mantel comes to Mortlake