Sayes Court was a manor house and garden in Deptford, in the London Borough of Lewisham on the Thames Path and in the former parish of St Nicholas. Sayes Court once attracted throngs to visit its celebrated garden created by the seventeenth century diarist John Evelyn. Now completely buried beneath Convoys Wharf and Sayes Court Park, the area shows little sign of its former glory, despite having been a key factor in the creation of the National Trust. History Earliest information The Manor of Deptford was bestowed upon Gilbert de Magminot or Maminot by William the Conqueror and this is where he held the head of the barony of Maminot. In 1814 John Lyon wrote that Maminot built a castle, or castellated mansion, for himself at Deptford. Lyon noted that all traces had by then long since been buried in their ruins, but from the remains of some ancient foundations which had been discovered, the site was probably on the brow of Broomfield, near the Mast Dock and adjacent to Sayes Court. Gilbert de Magminot's great-grandson, Walkelin Maminot, dying without issue in 1191, the manor fell to the share of his sister and co-heir Alice, the wife of Geoffrey de Saye. The ownership of the manor can then be traced until after the death of Charles I, when it was seized by the Parliament and a survey of the manor was taken. The Manor house, Sayes Court, along with about of land, was assigned by Parliament to the Browne family, who had occupied it for several generations by then. It was owned by Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, and in 1530 when he fell from Henry VIII's favour, it was given to Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and his wife, Mary, the French Queen. John Evelyn at Sayes Court In 1647 Mary Browne, daughter and heir of Sir Richard Browne, married John Evelyn, the famous diarist, who hailed from Wotton in Surrey. With the Restoration of the monarchy, Sayes Court reverted once more to the Crown, but, having taken up residence in his wife's family home in 1651, Evelyn managed with difficulty to obtain a 99-year lease of the property from Charles II in 1663. He rebuilt and enlarged the house and, inspired by French and Italian ideas, turned the surrounding orchard and pasture into one of the most influential gardens of his day. The garden Though all visible above-ground traces