Bliss Mausoleum

The mausoleum stands near the lake in the grounds of Brandon Hall, which Edward Bliss purchased in 1820 and rebuilt in the fashionable Grecian taste. The mausoleum, on the other hand, is designed in a ‘starved’ Gothic style and takes the form of a diminutive buttressed chapel with a little porch. It is built in yellow brick with flint panels and a steep slate roof, embellished with a stone cross finial, flanked by obelisks. Two low flat-roofed extensions on either side of the chapel housed the coffins. The plain wooden door is protected by an elaborate wrought-iron grille, bearing a continental baron’s coronet and the initial ‘B’.

Architect

Not known

Style

Greek Revival

Listing

Year built

1845

History

The Bliss Mausoleum was erected by Edward Bliss, an opulent manufacturer of gun flints who amassed a great fortune during the Napoleonic Wars. He died on 2 April 1845, and his wife, Sarah, followed him in 1859 and was interred there too. The estate was left to Henry Aldridge, who changed his name to Bliss. Henry Bliss later inherited the title and estates of a cousin and became Baron Alrego of Portugal. In 1869 he inherited a further title, Baron Boretto of Spain, and presumably the coronet and monogram on the mausoleum gate were his addition. He died in 1890 and was also buried in the mausoleum. He was succeeded by a son, known as Henry d’Alrego, who formed a celebrated collection of human sculls. He died in 1903, and the Brandon estate passed into other hands. The Bliss family were probably Catholic, hence their separate mausoleum. The bodies in the mausoleum were removed years ago and reburied in Brandon Churchyard.