Ravens Of Blackwater

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Blackwater Hall seemed to hover like a bird of prey over the river estuary whose name it held in its eager talons. Built on a grassy knoll, it stood a mile or so below the town of Maldon and commanded a superb view of the battlefield where the Danes had won a famous victory almost a century earlier. Northey Island looked much now as it did then, a triangular lump caught in the very throat of the river and linked to the mainland by the slender causeway across which the invaders had surged at low tide. Saxon courage had not been able to withstand the might of the Danish army and Northey was a sad memento of defeat. Beyond it was the oval shape of Osea Island and beyond that the River Blackwater pursued its serpentine course past a succession of creeks and inlets, which were fringed with marshes,

mud flats, saltpans, and sandbanks.

The house was imposing. Most of the dwellings in Maldon and the surrounding area were built of timber and roofed with thatch or shingled wood. They were simple structures. Blackwater Hall bore no resemblance to the long, low manor house that it had so comprehensively replaced. Constructed of stone, imported for the purpose from Caen, it was proud and tall with a menacing solidity. Its ground floor was used for storage. The main hall was on the first floor, reached by an exterior flight of stone steps. Above the hall was a gallery off which the various apartments ran. Narrow arched windows looked out with cold disdain. A tiled roof added to the sense of strength and invincibility. Blackwater Hall was like the keep of a Norman castle, an impression that was reinforced by the outbuildings, which were grouped around it to form a courtyard and by the high stone wall, which enclosed the whole property.

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