A place, a house, a home

An example of staying put...

Daffodils at Saltram House National Trust, Devon

This past weekend we explored a stately home property on the Island we had not visited before. It had just reopened for the year, so we hoped it wouldn’t be too crowded. Intriguingly, the description of the property said: ‘Appuldurcombe was a masterpiece of English Baroque architecture, and though now a graceful shell, still retains more than a ghost of its former dignity, and many fine architectural details.” Hmmmm, ‘graceful shell' was a curious choice of words indeed! We wondered what was in store for us.

Before moving to the Isle of Wight a couple of years ago, we had belonged to the National Trust for many years as they own dozens of stately homes and estates in Devon and Cornwall alone, and we spent many a Sunday exploring both houses and vast gardens at all times of year and weathers, enjoying the landscaped abundance of acres of sculptured herb and rose gardens, the vast libraries and grandly decorated halls and ballrooms, and the ever present tea rooms and gift shops for modern visitors.

Top row: Scenes from Lanhydrock National Trust, Cornwall. Bottom row: Door at Lanhydrock NT(l); set for tea at Saltram National Trust, Devon (r).

Since there are few National Trust properties on the Island, we decided to ask for a gift membership in English Heritage from my daughter, who kindly obliged, and we are now tearing around to try to see as many of these properties as we can in the next year. Which led us to Appuldurcombe House. It is the third of four properties on the Island we have visited. The first, and grandest is Osborne House, the summer palace Queen Victoria had built to spend time relaxing away from the other palaces (as you do!) Our first visit was in the winter when they only offer guided tours of the house, and we skipped the gardens that day as it was pouring rain. We plan to go back many more times.

Before we visited Appuldurcombe, I looked online to learn what kind of facilities it has, and learned that there is ‘the shell of a building’ and the gardens, but no restrooms, cafe, or any other ‘facilities’ like that. On Saturdays it is closed for private weddings. It all seemed a little different than what we are used to, so we figured we’d have some fun exploring. We got there shortly after it opened at 10 am, and found only a few others roaming around the grounds. Definitely no crowds! They allow dogs and it is a rolling, sloping landscape with broad fields and some enclosed gardens lush with spring green growth. Flowers were just about to burst from their various buds. The ‘shell of a house’ is aptly described, as it is absolutely ‘Grand’ but also in various conditions of decay. 

Our initial glimpses of the exterior (and interior stairway) of Appuldurcombe House, Isle of Wight.

The house was constructed in the very early 1700s by Sir Robert Worsley on the site of an old 16th century manor house, and was thought to have been one of the most modern and impressive houses on the Island. Although work was stopped before it was finished in 1713, in the late 1780s, the subsequent owner who inherited it, Sir Richard Worsley, did extensive work on the house and also hired the famous landscape designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown to work on the parklands. Apparently, little of Brown’s work survives, although there are large entrance gates, obelisks and an artificial ruin that still can be found dotted around the area.

Grand Front of Appuldurcombe House and a glimpse of the grounds, IoW.

After reading a few more of the plaques in the ‘ruins’, we learned that the original 16th Century Tudor House on which the current house stands, was built by Sir James Worsley. Sir James Worsley began his life as a page boy to Henry VII, and was brought up with the young Henry (the VIII; you may have heard of that one). When Henry VIII became King, James Worsley was knighted and granted ‘most of the official roles on the Isle of Wight’. So this chap who started out as a page boy playing with the King’s son ended up one of the most important people on the Isle of Wight, and able to gain title to this property through some other serendipitous means. I’ll leave the rest of the story of this family for you to learn when you visit someday! There is even a salacious scandal between the husband and wife portrayed below.  

Copies of the portraits of Sir Richard Worsley and his wife Seymour Dorothy Worsley, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1776.

It is quite a formidable property and we enjoyed poking around the parts of the building without a roof as much as the curated bones of the interior spaces that remain.

More of Appledurcombe House, IoW

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After spending the morning wondering around the grounds and learning about the inhabitants over the years and the modifications each made to their house and landscape, I wondered why it is we humans always like to make our mark on the land we inhabit? It is understandable centuries ago when the land was mainly wild and we wanted to create a tamer place to feel safe and protected, but even now, we like to tweak wherever we are, even just a little. We want to make it ‘ours’ even though really, it belongs to our earth, and it’s the earth’s rhythms and processes that drive what is even possible or sustainable in our little plot. 

Our 150-year-old house’s original owners were a couple who lived here with no children, so they passed ownership to their life-long housemaid, named Alma. The people before us bought the house from Alma, and named the house after her. And now it belongs to us. There have been a few modifications along the way, but not too many. Although we have done some interior painting and replacing of worn floor-coverings, I don’t think we will be changing the front entrance to another side of the house, or adding any extra wings and covered porticos like the Worsley’s. We have been doing some landscaping, and perhaps we will create our own obelisk in the form of a buddha, and a water feature instead of a ruin. But you never know! 

We are working with a slightly less famous landscaper to create a more wildlife-friendly garden space; good for us and our needs, but also better for more wildlife too. Currently we are mostly visited by gulls, jackdaws (crow-like), wood pigeons, and the neighbourhood cats, mostly drawn in by the neighbour’s fat-balls and seed feeders. I jumped for joy when a blackbird swooped in as soon as we started digging up the soil this past weekend. I also found a slow worm (actually a legless lizard¹) working it’s way across our meagre grassy patch; slow worms are a protected species in the UK, and I have only seen one before in our garden in Devon.

Slow worm near bottom in grass; shoe up top for scale.

I’m looking forward to creating more growing space, building up our soil, and enjoying sharing this little patch of earth with those species who have lived here longer. So whilst we are creating our own stamp on this little urban patch, we are also trying to give some of it back to the landscape from which we have borrowed a space to live. I wonder if it will still be here in another 150 years?

View from Carisbrooke Castle (built originally in 1100s), Isle of Wight

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Thank you so much for reading this week! Do you have a home with an interesting past life? Do you have a family home that has been lived in for generations? Are your gardens (if any) home to any wildlife that you like or dislike? How do you get on with them? Let me know in the comments!!

Have a wonderful week, and I look forward to your company with my words next week!

xoxo Sabrina

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1. https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/reptiles/slow-worm