Maer Hall

His nephew Charles Darwin often visited Maer, and married Josiah's daughter Emma.

A manor house at Maer dates back to 1282, the owner then being William de Mere.

In the 18th century the landscape designer Capability Brown altered the lake in a scheme of pleasure grounds.

He had the house prepared, with the park being laid out by the landscape designer John Webb, and in 1807 the family moved in.

Charles gained much useful information from his relatives during the inception of Darwin's theory, and it was at Maer Hall that he first became interested in the effects of the burrowing of earthworms, which were the subject of an early paper presented to the Geological Society as well as of his last book.