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Jaime
Kaminski
Sussex Archaeological Society
Barbican House
169 High Street
Lewes
BN8 1YE
The early Tudor mansion of Cowdray (at Midhurst) was devastated by fire in 1793 and, conserved by a Lottery Grant, it is now open to the public. At first sight it appears to have been typical of the houses built by members of Henry VIII's Court, but recent research is showing a property that was very different from the other mansions of the day. They displayed their possessors' importance; Cowdray, by contrast very much smaller, barely acknowledged its owner and was filled with symbolic references to the king. This article attempts to interpret the iconography and explain a unique house.