When the navy left Creeksea after the Second World War, the estate above the River Crouch was divided into plots and sold at auction. The manor house went to Luigi Bertorelli, an Italian-born businessman from Southend, in 1947, and his family has owned it ever since. The house is much older than that sale: a lead rainwater head on its north wing carries the date 1569. Today the Bertorelli family gives Creeksea Place, just west of Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex, to one wedding at a time, with ceremonies in a walled garden, a marble gazebo in the orchard or a pavilion on the lake.
The Harris house of 1569
Creeksea Place was built in the reign of Elizabeth I by Arthur Harris, and the Harris family held it for five generations. His son, Sir William Harris, born in 1556, was knighted at Whitehall in 1603 for service in Ireland during the Nine Years’ War, put his name and £75 to the third charter of the Virginia Company, and died at Creeksea in 1616. He and his wife Alice are buried at All Saints’ Church, Creeksea, which Frederic Chancellor rebuilt in 1878 and 1879 with much of the earlier fabric reused, including a medieval octagonal font.
What stands today is part of a much larger house. The Harris house was built of red brick around a courtyard, with three or four ranges, and the south range was lost in 1740. The north range is the one that keeps its Tudor character: brick mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights, its original chimneystacks and a staircase on its south side, as well as the dated rainwater head. The east wing was rebuilt on the old foundations. Creeksea Place was first listed in 1951 and is now Grade II*.
Oysters, a naval base and an auction
At the start of the twentieth century the house was taken in hand by William Rome, a London businessman who owned fashionable coffee houses and cultivated oysters in the Crouch to serve in them. Burnham was then a fishing port known for its oyster beds. Wings of the house were rebuilt for Rome between 1900 and 1907, and he filled the rooms with antiques and planted many of the estate’s trees, and he died in 1909.
In the Second World War the estate was requisitioned. From 1943 to 1945 Burnham was HMS St Matthew, a base for up to 1,400 sailors training on minor landing craft, and the navy took over the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in the town and a site at Creeksea. At the house the servants’ quarters became sailors’ accommodation, a corrugated cinema went up, and gun emplacements were built on the river. After the war came the auction and the Bertorelli purchase.
From film location to wedding house
Luigi Bertorelli’s granddaughter brought the cameras in. The house played Miss Havisham’s house in the BBC’s Great Expectations, with Stratford Johns in the cast, and it appeared in the BBC’s The Murder Game. Christina Bertorelli opened Creeksea Place to the public in 2004, and the house has since been hired for private events and weddings. Its restoration has been supported by Historic England, Maldon District Council and Burnham Town Council.
About 35 acres of gardens, orchard, walled garden and lakes come with the house. Arrival is through a gravel court with stone lions, under a wall of wisteria, and a welcome team in top hats and tails greets the guests as they arrive.
Three places to marry in the grounds
Creeksea Place holds a licence for civil ceremonies outdoors as well as in, and it has three outdoor settings. The Walled Garden is enclosed by its old red-brick wall and planted with magnolia trees and white roses, with a red carpet laid for the aisle. One canopy is put up for the drinks reception and another for the musicians, whether a string quartet, a harpist or a gospel choir, and an archway in the wall leads through to the orchard.
In the orchard, among the fruit trees, stands the Marble Gazebo, the second setting. The third is the Pavilion on the Lake, reached across a white timber bridge, with warm lighting and amplified sound. After dark, lanterns are set along the bridge.
Indoors, three rooms are licensed: the Regency Room, the Panelled Room and the Music Room. The Panelled Room has oak panelling, two chandeliers and a stone fireplace, which makes it the obvious choice if the weather turns, and the rooms can also hold smaller receptions. For couples who want only the legal ceremony, a ceremony package of two hours costs £2,500.
Dinner under silk
Drinks are served in the Walled Garden or on the lawn, which looks across to the bridge and the lake. The wedding breakfast and the evening follow in the marquee, which stands in the grounds during the summer months with a view of the house. It is lined in ivory silk with swags and tails, hung with chandeliers, and has a starlight cloth over a white starlit dancefloor, an outside canopy and a fully stocked bar. It seats up to 200 for dinner, and larger weddings can be discussed with the venue. The Cigar Lounge bar is part of the house as well.
The cooking is done by the house’s own full-time team and its chef, and the menus run from an afternoon garden party to a formal wedding breakfast, with light bites, a buffet, a barbecue or five courses at the table among the choices. Tables, chairs, linen, glassware and waiting staff for the wedding breakfast and evening come with the venue, along with a dedicated venue manager on the day. As dusk falls, the house and grounds are lit with spotlights, candles and burning torches.
A riverside town for the night
No wedding package at Creeksea Place includes a bed for the night. The Bridal Cottage, which is the Eastern Wing of the manor, is included for an hour before the ceremony for getting ready, and the Cottage can also be booked separately for a stay.
Guests stay in Burnham-on-Crouch and the villages around it. Burnham lies on the north bank of the Crouch and is one of Britain’s principal yachting towns, with four sailing clubs; the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club’s building was designed by Joseph Emberton in 1931. The clubs share Burnham Week, the regatta held in the last week of August, so couples marrying that week should send guests to book rooms early. Burnham station, on the Crouch Valley line between Wickford and Southminster, is a little over a mile from the house.
The drive is about 50 minutes from the Dartford Tunnel on the M25. Trains run from London Liverpool Street, guests flying in can use Stansted, there is berthing for boats five minutes away, and helicopters can land by prior arrangement.
For other English houses with long histories, read our Edits on Hatfield House, Hedsor House and Leeds Castle, or browse weddings in the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom Wedding Atlas.
The shape of the day
The decision to make first at Creeksea Place is the size and hour of the wedding, because the 2027 packages are built around both. The Summer Garden Package, from £5,250, is an afternoon for up to 30 day guests with the house and the Walled Garden from 2pm for four hours. A Twilight Wedding begins at 5pm and is priced on a minimum of 100 guests, from £6,495 between Monday and Thursday. The Summer Wedding, for 50 day guests and 100 in the evening, begins at 3pm and costs from £11,500 between Monday and Thursday and £14,500 on a Saturday. Settle the guest list and the hour, then read the Creeksea Place profile and check your date.
