A PRESENT FROM SEAVIEW ANGUS

W. 1 A PRESENT FROM SEAVIEW AN ALBUM OF GEORGIAN PRINTS, AND VICTORIAN AND CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHS WITH A NUMBER OF EARLY PRINTS, DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS

GUY AND ZIRPHIE PARSLOE

SECOND EDITION

WITH ADDITIONAL PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS, AND NEW PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN AND PHYLLIDA PARSLOE

EPSOM 2004 Published by FALCON PRESS SDN BHD 57A, Jalan 5/58, Gasing Indah 46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Malaysia

First edition published in Great Britain by The Southern Publishing Co. (Westminster Press Ltd.) Brighton, 1979 © Guy Parsloe 1979

Second edition 2004 © John and Phyllida Parsloe 1 Woodcote Green House, Epsom, Surrey KT18 7DF

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN 983 2615 04 6

Printed in Malaysia by Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd. DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF EMMA JULIA and JOHN GREEN FAIERS who first brought us to Seaview

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

Our parents published the first edition of this work in 1979. photographs and have revised captions. A number of The bulk of the book consists of reproductions of the additional photographs, drawings and pictures have been Victorian photographs of Seaview and its surroundings included as explained in the Editors’ Note to the Second matched by photographs as nearly as possible of the same Edition at the end of the Note on Pictures scenes in 1978. The old photographs came from a family Advantage has been taken of the new techniques for photograph album which our father acquired in the course of reproducing photographs and the copies of the old his retirement business as an antiquarian bookseller. For many photographs are sharper than the originals and have had years it was available, always at the price of £3.95, from local background blemishes removed where possible. The prints bookshops that our mother zealously kept supplied on her have been darkened to heighten contrast. The decision to use frequent visits to the island. It has now been out of print for colour for the modern photographs was a difficult one but it some time and in over 20 years a good deal has changed in is hoped that on balance this adds to the attraction of the Seaview, not least the price of books! book and makes recognition of the views easier. This new edition follows the format of the first and The original book is dedicated to the memory of our the Introduction is unchanged, as largely is the Note on the mother’s parents. Our father died in 1985 aged 85 and our Pictures and the captions to the Victorian photographs. The mother in 2000 aged 96. This edition is dedicated, naturally, 1978 photographs by Dennis Robinson (with the exception to their memory. of no. 82a) have been replaced with new colour photographs taken recently. These follow rather than precede the Victorian John and Phyllida Parsloe September 2003

11

CONTENTS

Page A NOTE ON THE PICTURES 13

INTRODUCTION 17

ILLUSTRATIONS Fairy Hill, 1793 Frontispiece Prints from Sewell’s Sacred Thoughts, 1835 16, 18, 19, 24, 25 Seaview from the sea c.1840 30 Print from Holloway’s Souvenir (c.1845) 31 Photographs of 1868-88 32-84 and 88-108 (even numbers) Salterns Cottages, 1904 87 Corresponding photographs of 2002 (and one of 1978 on page 105) 33-109 (odd numbers) Fairy Hill, 2002 110 Sea Grove House and Seafield House, 2002 112 Seaview House, 2002 113 114 1797 115

ADDENDUM Four drawings of Seaview by Miss Waverley, 1831 117

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 123

13

A NOTE ON THE PICTURES

The frontispiece is reproduced from a hand-coloured print of topographical artists at this time. Montague Charles Owen’s Fairy Hill engraved by W. Angus from a painting by J. M. privately printed The Sewells of the , undated but Oglander and published August 1st, 1793. The painter was printed 1906, yields no clue. Jane Mary, wife of John Oglander, Warden of New College, The print of Seaview from the sea on p. 31 is taken Oxford. (See C. Aspinall-Oglander, Symphony, pp. from Holloway’s Souvenir of the Isle of Wight ... Tinted 170, 185). Engravings on Wood, , n.d. (but about 1845). The five pictures numbered 2 to 6 on pp. 16, 18-9 Thirty seven of the photographs which form the main and 24-5 are reproduced from a small book entitled Sacred body of the book (printed on the left hand page of each Thoughts in Verse, by William Sewell, M.A., Fellow and Tutor opening) come from a Victorian album, now in the editors’ of Exeter College, Oxford, published in London by James possession. It is inscribed on the inside end paper “Mary M. Bohn, 1835. Two of the five pictures are signed E.M.S., i.e. Murray from her Mother 8th Nov. 1903”. The pictures of Ellen Mary Sewell, sister of the author of the verses. In Seaview and neighbourhood are the last group, following postscript William Sewell expresses regret at the inclusion of similar batches or single prints of Richmond and “anything like embellishment” in this second edition of his neighbouring parishes, Great and Little Bookham, Hampton verses, but acknowledges a debt to “persons very dear to me” Court, Windsor, Broadstairs, London, Winchester, for views “from local scenery, connected with the subjects of Wellington College, St. Servan, Dinard, Dinan, Jersey, the poems”. The connexion is not apparent to this reader, but , , Freshwater and other Island scenes. Dates Sea View (as they wrote the name) clearly had pleasant are given in manuscript between 1865 on the first page associations for several of the twelve children of Thomas (Richmond) and 1888 (the latest of Seaview). Sewell, Solicitor, of Newport, and his wife Jane, since they Of the Seaview full plate pictures at least twelve were gave that name to the house at which they presumably professional work; these are mounted on card acquired in 1844. It would be interesting to find a link which and have printed captions. Eight of the twelve (nos. 15, 17, would explain why five of the eighteen prints in this book are 31, 35, 41, 49, 61 and 81 on pages 38, 40, 54, 58, 64, 72, of scenes which attracted so little attention from 84 and 104 respectively) were “published by F. H. Dawson, 14 A Present From Seaview

Sea View, Isle of Wight”: one (no. 53 on page 76) has a our nebulous and divergent ideas and also the many members printed caption in the Dawson style: the other three (nos. 67, of our family and friends who have encouraged us and helped 69 and 75 on pages 90, 92 and 98) respectively were with memories, suggestions, criticisms and even “photographed and published by F. N. Broderick, Junr., contributions. Ryde”. J. W. Hill’s Directory of the Isle of Wight, 2nd edition, 1879, lists F. H. Dawson as house and estate agent, toy and EDITORS’ NOTE fancy repository, Regent House, and Mrs. Dawson as drapery, TO THE SECOND EDITION stationery repository, and post office; she was Post Mistress. The same directory lists Frederick N. Broderick junr., The old photographs are reproduced in or close to the landscape and architectural photographer, Aurora villa, top of original size with the exception of those on pages 34, 36, 46, West Street, Ryde. His fine photographs are well-known at 48, 50, 52, 60, 78, 80 and 82, which are enlarged snapshots. the County Record Office. The colour photographs were taken by the editors in The cover picture of the Pier is based on a 2002. photograph in One Hundred and One Views of the Isle of There are additional contemporary photographs 74b Wight, published by Rock Bros. Ltd., n.d. (about 1905). and 76b and c, six contemporary photographs of old Seaview The decoration on the end-papers is based upon the houses (nos. 87-90b), replacing the three in the first edition, Ordnance Survey 25" = 1 mile map of 1862. and seven other new pictures (nos. 7, 10, 77, 83, 86, 91 and For the 1978 photographs we thank our friend Denis 92): Robinson, who spent two days in September, one mostly in the rain, searching out the positions from which the old No. 7 is a reproduction of a watercolour of 1_ pictures were taken, only to find several of them now totally Seaview from the sea of about 1840 measuring 10 2 " x inaccessible except to birds! 7". It is slightly earlier than the print from Holloway’s A great many old books have yielded material for the Souvenir on the facing page but some ten years later Introduction; the most important are named there. We must, than the drawing of “Seaview from the opposite field” however, acknowledge a special debt to Mr. R. J. Cheverton in the Addendum. Mr. S.I. Mathews sold this picture to and Mr. S. L. Matthews, whose Memories of Old Seaview, is a our parents after publication of the first edition with treasury of information mostly recoverable only by years of the request that it should be made available for Seaview research, if at all, and then desperately in need of the kiss of residents. Including a copy in this edition is intended in life. part to fulfil this request. We thank Phyllida for creating the cover design from No. 10 is a contempory view from the sea to be A Present From Seaview 15 compared with no. 9 taken in 1888. reproductions of watercolours in our possession. They Nos. 77 and 83 are from the Victorian album; the are interesting to compare with the copies of the first was probably omitted originally because of photographs of these bays. blemishes at the top which have necessitated cropping After the book was sent to the publishers, we the reproduction and the second may have been discovered reproductions of four drawings of Seaview in regarded as too far from Seaview. 1831 among our parents’ papers. These we added in the No. 86 is a photograph of the supposed location Addendum both because of their high quality and so that of the problem photograph no. 85. they can be compared with later views. They each have a title No. 91 is a picture of Seagrove Bay (18" x 10") in and are dated with different days in the summer of 1831. the nineteenth century and no. 92 is of Priory Bay (10" They are unsigned but we understand were drawn by a Miss 1– x 7 2 ") in the eighteenth century. Both are Waverley. The originals are in pencil on cartridge paper. 16 A Present From Seaview SEWELL 2 17

INTRODUCTION

The old photographs which are the core of this book appear from the rest of the village, as Mr. Matthews and Mr. to have been collected by a visitor to Seaview. It seems fitting Cheverton recorded in their Memories of Old Seaview. therefore that a visitor should introduce them. My wife first The third area of expansion was in Seagrove Bay. came here as a child before the First World War. My first visit, Several large houses were built along what we called the Toll as a guest of her parents, was in 1928. A few years later we Road (because it ended in a footpath to the beach at which were bringing our children for the annual seaside holiday and one paid a 1d. toll), while beyond Gully Road houses fronted settling to a routine which, interrupted by the second war, by an Esplanade stretched away towards Horestone Point. took new dimensions in 1947, when we acquired a house in Only two of these survived a series of landslips which had Ryde Road, part of which remains our second home and destroyed most of them by 1939. provides a holiday home for our grandchildren and their cousins. A Charming Hamlet The Seaview of the 1920’s retained most of the The attractions of the Isle of Wight seem to have become buildings which appear in the photographs of 1868-1888 known to the mainland gentry in the last quarter of the reproduced here, as indeed does the Seaview of the 1970’s. It eighteenth century, perhaps because of the loss of the “Royal had however grown, partly by infilling but mainly by George” off Spithead in 1782, an event which shocked the expansion in three directions. From the centre the making of country, perhaps because of the publication of Sir Richard Steyne Road gave an alternative route to Old Seaview Lane, Worsley’s History of the Island (1781) and the publicity given with houses round the church, along Steyne Road and in to his crim. con.* action against Captain Bissett, another Somerset Road. Island landowner. The outbreak of the French Revolutionary A much larger addition began with the building of War in 1793 focused attention on Portsmouth and made the Ryde Road in the 1890’s and was completed between 1907 Island as convenient a home for naval officers as the Itchen and 1939 by the laying out of Fairy Road and Bluett Avenue valley and Hampshire generally. Though until the building of across the Seafield estate. This not only much increased the number of houses; it also ended the separation of Salterns *criminal conversation or intercourse – in this case adultery. Ed. 18 A Present From Seaview SEWELL 3 A Present From Seaview 19 SEWELL 4 20 A Present From Seaview the pier in 1813-14 the journey from ship to shore at low cottage. Fairy Hill, the Priory and Seagrove were comfortable water entailed horse-drawn carts or carrying by seamen, as country houses rather than architectural extravagances, and Henry Fielding described in Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, the landscape, for all its charm, was notably lacking in Ryde naturally gained most from this influx, expanding grandeur. Here were no more than a scatter of cottages where within a generation from a fishing village to a busy, the well wooded northern and western slopes of a modest fashionable town. Around it wealthy newcomers acquired 150 ft. hill came to the shore, a pleasant villa (Seafield) and estates and built or enlarged great houses, such as Westfield, beyond it and hard to reach, some old cottages with a salt built for Earl Spencer, Appley Towers, St. John’s, and St. works and a long marshy duver. True that coming by way of Clare. the coast road from Ryde it was here one got the first view of These developments left Seaview almost untouched. the open sea, but that looks much the same further on! Hurry The “tours” of the Island by John Hassell (1790) and Charles on then to the Priory. Tomkins (1796) and William Cooke’s New Picture of the Isle of Wight (1808) are picture books in which the text is strictly Discovery of Seaview subsidiary to the prints of gentlemen’s houses, churches and Though the guide books of the 1830’s, probably copying one some natural sights. Between them they offer two pictures of another, mostly mention lodging house building at Seaview, Sir Nash Grose’s home, The Priory, one of Priory Bay and it was the coming of the railway to Gosport in 1842 and to one of Seagrove Bay. They mention Fairy Hill, Seagrove and Portsmouth in 1847-48 that transformed the hamlet round Mr. Kirkpatrick’s house (Seafield) and Salterns, but illustrate Old Fort into the holiday village we see in these 1868-1888 none of them. So, too, the early guide books, such as Bullar photographs. John Wilkes in the 1790’s usually allowed two (1813), John Albin (1818), James Clarke (1819), had little days for the journey from Grosvenor Square to his more to say about Seaview until the middle of the century. cottage, spending a night at the Anchor at Liphook. The But that little records growth of lodging for visitors, railway brought Southampton and Gosport within three or favourable comment on the sands and bathing and, in one four hours of Battersea and opened the Island to a wholly instance, the suggestion that for some the village was a refuge new class of visitor, the professional and business men of from “the bustle and gaiety” of Ryde. western suburbs. These were the makers of that great The aristocratic travellers for whom these artists and Victorian institution, the seaside family holiday. In Seaview guides were working would have found little if anything to many of them found exactly what they wanted. their taste in this bit of St. Helen’s parish. Any flicker of Most of these new visitors were country born and romantic interest in the Priory's monkish origins would be bred - the census of 1851 shocked social thinkers by the doused by the lack of visible remains. The old Fort, perhaps disclosure that for the first time more than half the never more than a block house, seems to have become a population of was living in large towns. As they A Present From Seaview 21 moved to Dulwich or Wimbledon to save their children from So two-thirds of the houses which visitors found in the fever carts of the overcrowded city centre, so they the 1860's were a creation of the decade 1841-1851, but the migrated with their whole household to the sea in summer. resident population in twenty years had increased by little Neither the urban elegancies of Bath nor Brighton’s more than two-fifths. The population of course increased saturnalia allured them: they sought and at Seaview found a partly by the growth of Seaview families, several of which homely, familiar country way of life, fresh air, clean golden were distinguished examples of Victorian fertility, and partly sands, and safe bathing and boating and fishing. by immigration. The census returns throw some light on the proportions, though again changes in the method of What the Censuses show recording prevent exact calculations. The 1841 census As always, demand created supply, and the census returns for records only whether a person was born in the same county 1841, 1851, 1861 and 1871 enable us to measure with fair or outside England, whereas the 1851 and later returns give precision the growth of buildings and population within what the parish. Analysing the birthplace of heads of households, ultimately became the parish boundaries. I do not claim that one finds the “foreign”, non-Seaview element fairly steady my figures are exact, because the areas assigned to over the three censuses of 1841, 1851 and 1861: 22.4% in enumerators in successive censuses are not identical. So it is 1841, 23.8% in 1851, 22.5% in 1861. The proportion may necessary to exclude entries in some censuses and in others to well have been higher in 1841, because “the same county” include entries from other sections and I may well have made was Hampshire, which may have contributed quite a few mistakes. But they are unlikely to affect the general picture “overners”. formed by a comparison of the four returns. The total number of houses (or households, as two Founding Families heads of family or even three are listed for some houses) was: The census returns, which anyone can consult at the Isle of In 1841 52 Wight County Record Office at Newport, are a mine of 1851 87 67.3% increase information about our not-far-off ancestors. At least three of 1861 85 the families listed in Seaview in 1841 are still represented here 1871 102 17.2% increase on 1851. -Caws, Matthews and Greenham- and the validity of the pun “They’re the Caws of Seaview” is illustrated by the fact that The total number of inhabitants listed was: of 49 heads of households listed twelve bear that surname. In 1841 234 Their story has been well told by Mr. S. L. Matthews, one of 1851 276 17.9% increase on 1841. whose great-grandmothers was a daughter of Anthony Caws, 1861 336 43.5% increase on 1841. founder of the Seaview dynasty. Six of the twelve Caws heads 22 A Present From Seaview of households were pilots, three more mariners; of the last development of Seaview in the past century and a half is a three, Betty and Harriett are described as Independent and subject yet to be worked out from the records one hopes have Mary as Licensed Victualler - she kept the Seaview Hotel in been preserved at Nunwell and Winchester, but a village the High Street. Between them the Caws shared in all three which was its owners’ home throughout its formative years of the principal occupations of Seaview heads. At this time seems likely to manifest many of their preferences and there were nine pilots, seven mariners and eight residents of prejudices. One moiety of the manor, consisting of 140 acres independent means. For the rest, two are described as and a farm house, was sold to various purchasers about 1875, yeomen, presumably copyhold farmers; there were two but the Nunwell estate’s practice of selling 999 years carpenters, two dairymen and one of each of seven or eight leaseholds instead of freeholds seems to have been maintained service tradesmen, such as baker, shoemaker, gardener. Two generally until the recent “leasehold enfranchisement”. This servants, one male and one female, are listed as heads, of course assured the owners of the freehold of an income; it because they occupied tied cottages on the Seagrove estate, as also gave them some control over the character of the also did the Bailiff. A single Coast Guard, soon to be one of development on their land. Those who love Seaview as a a team, a solicitor, and at Red Cross house a gentleman quiet small place may well owe thanks to successive Glynn described as “Navy H.P.” (half pay?), complete the 1841 roll. squires, for it is notable that the views from their houses toward the sea remained unobstructed by buildings until the A Health to the Squire! end of the last century in the case of Fairy Hill and until the Set the Caws family apart and the Seaview of 1841 looks like 1950’s in that of Seagrove. Yet Mr. W. A. Glynn of Seagrove any one of some hundreds of English coastal hamlets, where deserves to be remembered for his enthusiastic involvement squire or parson would supply leadership. The whole of what in the building of the Pier and the Pier hotel in 1879-81, no is now the parish of Seaview belonged to the manor of less than for the eccentricities of his old age, so appreciatively , which William Oglander of East Nunwell described by Mr. Cheverton in Memories. bought in 1592. On the death in 1814 of the Rev. Henry To the west the marshy land between Salterns and Oglander of Fairy Hill the manor passed in two moieties to Springvale hindered expansion. On the other side, beyond his sister Mrs. Glynn and two of her sons. From then until the the Seaview boundary, the Priory remained a family home death of W. A. Glynn of Seagrove in 1926, the lords of the until World War 1, and neither the Grose-Smith owners nor manor were Glynns, though John Henry Glynn of Fairy Hill the Workers’ Travel Association and the Nodes Point Holiday assumed the name Oglander by royal licence in 1895 and the Camp have violated the beauty of the Priory and the hanging property was managed through the Nunwell Estate Office, as wood Sir Nash Grose had planted nearly two centuries ago. it still is. The influence of Oglander estates policy on the Perhaps the slipper clay on this cliff is the main defence A Present From Seaview 23 against the developers but, whatever the cause, the survival of wars will have displayed under the froth of the ’twenties what William Cooke in 1808 described as “the calm and customs and conventions of long organic growth. It was then cheerful beauty of this enchanting bay” contributes an the resort of families of professional and business people, essential part of Seaview’s attractions. particularly from the southwestern London suburbs and the Photographs give us the backcloth of a century ago “stockbroker belt” of northeast Surrey. Many had a second but the cast and the play itself can only be recovered from home here and organized house parties; others rented a contemporary writings. There are few figures in these house for the month or six weeks and brought their own staff pictures, all of them apparently frozen stiff, because of course with them. exposure times in the 1860’s were measured in minutes, not In most years there were a few visitors whose names fractions of a second. How much bribery and/or meant something in the theatre or in sport, in politics or in intimidation kept young children scantily clad and in literature. For the last group particularly the Garnett's house romantic poses in Mrs. Cameron’s Freshwater garden about on the hill half-way toward the Priory was no doubt the this time? Sometime, perhaps, material will come to light to objective. I cherish the memory of Dr. Richard Garnett and tell us what a Seaview holiday was like in the second half of his wife, frail and slow-moving in sober-hued clothes, Victoria’s reign - a bunch of faded letters, the visitors’ book threading their way through the sun-bathers and the sand of a private hotel or lodging house, a “holiday diary” kept to castles. show Grandmama, nostalgic memoirs of the writer’s younger Seagrove Bay was the day-time playground, with an days. Let’s hope they’re found by someone who understands unbroken row of tents, managed by Mr. Wilson Bull, from their interest to many people; but as things are, our curiosity the slipway of Pier House to the Boat House by Gully Road, goes on short rations. We note the bathing machines below part of them on top of the wall. Families came year after year the Crown Hotel, study old railway time-tables and shipping and re-booked their tents when they re-booked their houses. lines’ advertisements, look at the plan of houses built for So August visitors tended to become a community, within summer letting with a bolt-hole for the resident owners, and which grew friendships (and no doubt distastes) that have apply to Seaview what we know about contemporary lasted through long lives. Tribal feeling was fostered by the conditions at other resorts in the Island and further afield. physical characteristics of the bay. The pier marked its western boundary as emphatically as Horestone Point defined its Between the Wars eastward limit. Access from the village was difficult at high Such scraps only whet the appetite, but I suspect that tide, because the sands then sloped gently upwards and at the Seaview's short “season” was as slow-changing in essentials as top beside the wall were four to five feet lower than the stones its ground plan and architecture. If so, Augusts between the are now. So the steps by the Pier were awash and descended 24 A Present From Seaview SEWELL 5 A Present From Seaview 25 SEWELL 6 26 A Present From Seaview to a narrow strip of beach under the Pier House garden wall, by Gully Road and, in late August at least, start wasp often wave swept. An alternative was to walk along the road swatting. “No, dear, bring your bathing things back to dry behind Pier House, pay the penny toll at the passage and then for tomorrow.” - “Did you remember to tie up the tent squiggle through a tightly compressed melange of tents, door?” boats, dogs, children, sunbathers and picnic parties to your My wife’s family usually took a walk after supper; the own tent, if you had one, or, if not, to a momentarily vacant age of owner-drivers was only just beginning and few families spot of dry beach. There was much ferrying from the steps at brought cars to Seaview. Along the beach again and up over high tide, a tricky operation for the oarsman and the the Priory fields to St. Helen’s Church; across the fields from passengers. It would have been easier if the owners of Pier Nettlestone to Bullen; along the Duver to or up House had not wanted, rather naturally, to keep their garden Oakhill Road to - there were many routes to choose to themselves and their guests, but for some years at least that from, all offering somewhere the prospect of fields and woods short cut was barred by an iron fence with barbed wire on the and sea under the sun’s parting benediction. Often there sea wall and locked gates at each end. would be something on at the Pavilion in the evening - a concert party, a cinema show, dancing, and in the later The Long Summer Day evening everyone seemed to take a stroll down the High On a fine morning (and all August mornings were fine in Street and along the Esplanade. We sat on the wall, watching Seaview when I was young!) each family’s advance guard the passers-by and the goings-on in what became the would appear soon after nine o’clock to open the tent, set out Starboard Club* but was then a private house usually deck chairs and spread towels within the small territory occupied in August by a lively young family. The Seaview defined by the tent’s frontage. The main party, bearing Hotel bar and the Belvoir cafe were busy until closing time. supplies probably completed by calls at Watson’s and Henley’s, the High Street bakers, would arrive an hour or Sunday Best two later. The tide dictated the day’s activities and phrases Sunday was different as most visitors between the Wars recurred - “Not enough water at the raft and diving board?” expected it to be. Methodists and Baptists found welcome at - “Why not see if Mr. Churchill has a boat free?” - “Anyone Beulah Chapel and in Ryde Road, Roman Catholics heard for cricket?” - “Let’s put up the quoits net before someone Mass in a hall off the High Street, and St. Peter’s, by then the pinches that pitch!” - “Look, the Queen Mary! Isn’t she parish church, offered a shortened form of Morning Prayer as lovely?” - “That’s the Pilot boat coming back.” And so on till a special Visitors’ Service. You were well advised to arrive the trees in the gardens behind the wall begin to shade the top of the beach and it’s time to fetch a tea tray from the cafe *See illustration 32 on page 55. Ed. A Present From Seaview 27 early, as the pews filled up quickly when whole families baskets full of bright coloured windmills, squeakers, balloons, worshipped together, all in Sunday clothes, all female heads funny hats. For a day or two the centre of life moved west of covered. Some, I was told, wore bathing costumes the Pier. Though contests extending to Horestone Point gave underneath frocks and suits to save time once they reached the tent dwellers of Seagrove Bay a new interest, the best their tents, but there were others for whom Sunday places for watching the sailing and rowing contests lay observance involved a ban on bathing for the day. Often the between the Yacht Club and the Pier. The shore sports for the ten minutes address would be given by a visiting clergyman. younger children were held in the Bay, while the greasy pole The one whose memory seems most vivid among visitors of and comedy battle of flour versus soot took place on the rocks the 20’s is Studdert Kennedy. He actually served as locum to below Seaview House. Better fun to watch than to do. the vicar one August and Mr. Cheverton recorded that some parishioners went to St. Helen’s to avoid his sermons; but Ooh! ... Aah! some visitors remember walking there in the evening to hear The last scene, of course, was the Fireworks, and nearly every him again. Another summer visitor was the Rev. Alan Brooke, year, it seems to me in recollection, the weather prospects a schoolmaster, who after the second War became in effect kept us on the rack right up to the end. But usually, with or the Vicar’s assistant during his visits and settled in Seaview on without macs and umbrellas, the crowd began to thicken on his retirement. the Front about 9 o’clock and before dark there was a solid Regatta week tended to grow in importance to mass of people all along the sea wall, in the gardens and regular visiting families as children advanced into their teens. windows of houses, and right up the High Street to beyond The organisers must have worked for months in preparation, West Street. And soon we were chanting “Ooh! Aah!” but for most visitors the first feverish symptoms appeared together in applause at the rockets, as another Seaview only in the previous week. Father no doubt would do Regatta peaked and began to subside. The prize-giving at the something with a cheque book and copies of the programme Yacht Club or the house later to become the Starboard Club would be bought. Then began the scramble to find suitable had been held in daylight, soon after tea. There we gathered partners and secure the best boats, the practice rows and to salute individual achievement, to congratulate winners and swims, the privy councils to brief members of a team, the necessarily also to console losers. But here at the Fireworks, entering and withdrawing, the agonizing over slow-healing save for the few idiots who threw crackers among the crowd, injuries, rumour and counter rumour - “but he’s an Olympic we were momentarily a fused community, taking pleasure in bronze!” - the pot boiled merrily. And one morning early, an enterprise in which all, residents and visitors alike, might spirited in, who knows how, there are street sellers at the play if they wished. bottom of the High Street, swarthy-faced folk with great 28 A Present From Seaview

Thanks for the Memory remains essentially a seaside village. Like most of us its people “It’s a different world” we old ones tell one another today, as either take the road in search of greener pastures or adapt no doubt the old of every generation have done for centuries their ways to the limitations of the place. They inherit, use past. Certainly it’s a different Seaview. Houses and chalets in and pass on ways of living together which can only be found neat streets and holiday camps encircle the old village from today in small communities and are full of refreshment for Springvale to Nodes Point. Most of the houses seen in the old some visitors from the concrete jungles. photographs were divided into flats long ago. Narrow streets “The inhabitants of this island” wrote young John are narrowed by parked cars and front gardens disappear Hassell in 1790, “appear to possess a fund of cheerfulness and under concrete to provide off-street parking. The Pier is no good-humour, that is not so conspicuous in any other part of more and a weedy, rubble-strewn waste behind a broken sea his majesty’s dominions.” I agree. Our mental pictures of wall is all that remains of the Pier (or briefly, Halland) Hotel. Seaview, unlike the old photographs, are full of people, Seagrove Bay has lost most of the sand in exchange for a people with friendly faces. In our memories they seem always shingle bank nearly as high as the sea wall, where there are to have had time to listen and think of some way of helping few tents. us - on the buses, in the shops, on the beach. I have not Why do we still come here? Nostalgia? Habit? The found the same welcome for strangers elsewhere. pleasure of meeting old friends again? Sheer inertia? Some or So I hope change in the village will continue to be perhaps all of these may bring Grandpa and Grannie, but slow and superficial rather than radical. The sands of Seagrove what makes their children and grand-children ask about next Bay move westward and the Duver beach replaces Seagrove year's dates almost before they leave? for a few decades; the regatta goes on, a co-operative festival, My guess is that the dominant underlying cause is the not rate-aided; and, who knows? - our grandchildren may physical structure of the place, which changes so slowly that find horsedrawn buses waiting at Newall’s garage and be able it appears to be unchanging. Northward facing beaches limit once again to sit on the rocks in white frocks and trousers. the season’s length and this, with the small scale of the hill Doubtless they will tell their children how much better it was and bays, discourages commercial exploitation. Every few in the 1970’s. years the crowded August scene fires someone, usually a visitor, to launch some new project to “popularize” the resort; the rocket soars, bursts and is forgotten. Seaview Guy Parsloe February, 1979 29 30 A Present From Seaview

7 From the sea. Undated c. 1840 A Present From Seaview 31 HOLLOWAY 8 32 A Present From Seaview

9 From the sea. 1888. A Present From Seaview 33

10 From the sea slightly to the west of the facing picture. 2002. 34 A Present From Seaview

11 “Clarence Villa”. 1875-77. The original album contains also contains a photograph from slightly further back entitled “Entrance to Seaview” and dated July 1868. A Present From Seaview 35

12 Clarence Villa, subsequently Green Trees and now Hill Grove, in Old Seaview Lane has lost two chimneys and grown bow windows in 2002. 36 A Present From Seaview

13 The Green. July 1868. Compare nos. 17 and 19. A Present From Seaview 37

14 From slightly to the left of the facing picture. 2002. Houses in Church Street and Madeira Road cover the Green. 38 A Present From Seaview .H. DAWSON F

15 Bottom of Old Seaview Lane. 1875 - 78. The house on the right is marked “Clarence Villa”. A Present From Seaview 39

16 The house with the bay window is now named Jumble Cottage and the side of Clarence Villa is no longer visible. 2002. 40 A Present From Seaview .H. DAWSON F

17 Church Street from east of St. Peter’s Church. c.1878. The Green is still open ground but fenced. Compare no. 13. A Present From Seaview 41

18 Church Street. 2002. All the houses in the facing picture remain but the Green has houses all over it. 42 A Present From Seaview

19 “St. Peter’s Church. Bedford House.” 1877-78. Bedford House is now Madeira House. The fence on the left enclosed the Green. Compare no. 17. A Present From Seaview 43

20 Madeira Road. 2002. The Church has been much enlarged. 44 A Present From Seaview

21 The High Street in sunshine. July-August, 1868. No Man’s Land Fort, started in 1864, appears as a skeleton. It was not completed until 1880. A Present From Seaview 45

22 The High Street in sunshine. 2002. 46 A Present From Seaview

23 The High Street. July - August 1868. A Present From Seaview 47

24 The High Street. 2002. 48 A Present From Seaview

25 Looking up the High Street. July-August 1868. A Present From Seaview 49

26 Looking up the High Street. 2002. 50 A Present From Seaview

27 At the bottom of the High Street. 1868. A Present From Seaview 51

28 From the same point. 2002. The raised parapet partly hides the bench and the ground floor of the houses. 52 A Present From Seaview

29 From the bottom of the High Street. 1868. A Present From Seaview 53

30 From the same point. 2002. "The Laurels" has appeared on the left but the smoker of the churchwarden pipe and his companions have gone home. 54 A Present From Seaview .H. DAWSON F

31 Looking east from the shore below the Esplanade. 1875 - 78. A Present From Seaview 55

32 The same view as the facing picture. 2002. The building on the right is an extension made to the Starboard Club which is now once again a private house. 56 A Present From Seaview

33 From the Esplanade looking east. 1888. The pier was built 1879 - 1881. A Present From Seaview 57

34 The same view as the facing page. 2002. The pier was destroyed in a storm on 28th December 1950. 58 A Present From Seaview .H. DAWSON F 35 The Slipway, 1875 - 78. A Present From Seaview 59

36 The Slipway. 2002. 60 A Present From Seaview

37 Woodside 1868. A Present From Seaview 61

38 The same view as the facing page but alas without the ladies! 2002. 62 A Present From Seaview

39 West end of Seagrove bay perhaps taken from the Pier. ? 1888 A Present From Seaview 63

40 The same view as the facing picture but at low tide. 2002. 64 A Present From Seaview .H. DAWSON F 41 The shore looking east with the Old Cottage clearly visible. 1875 - 78 before the Pier was built. A Present From Seaview 65

42 The same view as on the facing page taken from the garden of Shoreside. 2002. The new buildings at the end of Pier Road hide The Old Boat House. 66 A Present From Seaview

43 The Old Boat House. Undated. A Present From Seaview 67

44 The Old Boat House. 2002. 68 A Present From Seaview

45 Seagrove Bay looking east. 1888. A Present From Seaview 69

46 Seagrove Bay looking east at lower tide. 2002. 70 A Present From Seaview

47 Seagrove Bay from a point east of the Old Boat House. Undated c.1878. Note the large tents on the sand and compare with no. 91. A Present From Seaview 71

48 View from near the same point as on the facing page. 2002. Until the 1960’s there was a line of tents behind the wall in summer. 72 A Present From Seaview .H. DAWSON F 49 Seagrove Bay and Horestone Point. 1875 - 78. Printed title “Priory Bay, Isle of Wight” with “Priory” corrected to “Sea Grove” in manuscript. A Present From Seaview 73

50 Seagrove Bay and Horestone Point. 2002. 74 A Present From Seaview

51 Seagrove Bay from Horestone Point. Undated. Probably 1888 as the Pier Hotel and the Pier are both clearly visible. A Present From Seaview 75

52 Seagrove Bay from Horestone Point without the Pier. 2002. 76 A Present From Seaview ? F.H. DAWSON ? F.H. 53 “Horestone Bay” (i.e. Priory Bay). 1888. (“Horestone Bay” in manuscript above printed caption “Near Sea View, Isle of Wight” in style of F.H. Dawson). A Present From Seaview 77

54 Priory Bay from near Nodes Point. 2002. View from approximately the same point as on the facing page. 78 A Present From Seaview

55 The Esplanade looking west toward the future Yacht Club. 1868. A Present From Seaview 79

56 The Esplanade looking west toward the Yacht Club. 2002. 80 A Present From Seaview

57 Hayward House and the Crown Hotel. 1868. A Present From Seaview 81

58 Hayward House and Crown Slip. 2002. 82 A Present From Seaview

59 Crown Hotel. 1868. A Present From Seaview 83

60 From approximately the same point as the picture on the facing page. 2002. 84 A Present From Seaview .H. DAWSON F

61 From Crown Slip looking west with the grounds of Seafield House on the left. 1875 - 78. A Present From Seaview 85

62 View from the same point. 2002. Houses and gardens of Bluett Avenue cover the grounds of Seafield House. 86 A Present From Seaview

63 Salterns Cottages. 1904. From a postcard that belonged to Mr. I. Nash. On the left is the western boundary wall of the Seafield estate, then still intact. A Present From Seaview 87

64 Salterns Cottages. 2002. 88 A Present From Seaview

65 “Nettlestone Point and Salterns”. c. 1878. The well wooded grounds of the Seafield estate separated Salterns from the village. A Present From Seaview 89

66 On the Dover. 2002. 90 A Present From Seaview .N. BRODERICK F 67 “Promenade along the sea wall, east of Ryde”. 1875 - 78. A Present From Seaview 91

68 The same view of the sea wall beyond Puckpool Park looking west. 2002. The first edition in 1978 showed the same sea wall as in the facing picture but it has now been replaced. 92 A Present From Seaview .N. BRODERICK F 69 “Promenade along the sea wall, east of Ryde”. Appley Tower looking east. 1875 - 78? A Present From Seaview 93

70 Appley Tower looking east. 2002. The trees now shadow the tower from the sun. 94 A Present From Seaview

71 ? Fairy Hill Cottages, Holgate Lane. Undated c.1878. A Present From Seaview 95

72 Fairy Hill Cottages, Holgate Lane. 2002. Tentative identification. It is not possible to photograph from the same position as on the facing page. 96 A Present From Seaview

73 The house on the left is Nettlestone House. Undated c.1878. A Present From Seaview 97

74a Nettlestone House obscured. 2002.

74b Nettlestone House from the west. 2002. 98 A Present From Seaview .N. BRODERICK F 75 “St Helen’s Church, Isle of Wight” in print. “1868, 1875 - 78” in manuscript. A Present From Seaview 99

76a The gravestones are the same but the view of the church is obscured. 2002.

76b View from the left of no.76a. 2002. 76c View from the right of no.76a. 2002. 100 A Present From Seaview

77 St. Helen’s Church. Undated c.1878. The top of the original photograph has been cropped because of blemishes which have been removed as far as possible from the part shown. A Present From Seaview 101

78 View from slightly to the right of that on the facing page showing the whole church including the cropped parts. 2002. 102 A Present From Seaview

79 St. Helen’s Green. Undated c. 1878. A Present From Seaview 103

80 St. Helen’s Green with the pond filled in. 2002. 104 A Present From Seaview .H. DAWSON F 81 St. Helen’s Old Church Tower. Undated c.1878. A Present From Seaview 105

82a St. Helen’s Old Church Tower. 1978 (from the first edition). The London underground railway carriage was used for bathing huts.

82b St. Helen’s Old Church Tower. 2002. The railway carriage has gone and a hideous building obscures the old view. 106 A Present From Seaview

83 The beach west of looking north east to Nodes Point. Undated. A Present From Seaview 107

84 From about the same point as on the facing page. 2002. The breakwater appears to remain. 108 A Present From Seaview

85 Where is it? No caption. Dated 1875 - 78. Facing the first picture of St. Helen’s Church in the original album. A Present From Seaview 109

86 A possible solution to the challenge set in the first edition. The road to Nettlestone after the turn past St. Helen’s Church. 2002. 110 A Present From Seaview

87 Fairy Hill. 2002. Compare with the frontispiece. A Present From Seaview 111

88 Fairy Hill from the allotments at the top of Steyne Road. 2002. 112 A Present From Seaview

89a Sea Grove. 2002. Former home of the Glynn and Oglander Squires.

89b Seafield House. 2002. Built for James Kirkpatrick, owner of the Salterns, about 1800. A Present From Seaview 113

90a Seaview House - north face. 2002. Built for Mr Le Marchant in 1847.

90b Seaview House - west face. 2002. 114 A Present From Seaview

91 Seagrove Bay. Undated. Note the tents in the right middle ground and compare with no. 47. A Present From Seaview 115

92 Priory Bay. “View Southward from the Rocks upon the Beach below the Priory Garden. The distant Point is Bembridge, the nearer St. Helens. November 1797. H.A.B.” 117

ADDENDUM

FOUR PENCIL DRAWINGS OF SEAVIEW BY MISS WAVERLEY

Cottage and Rocks at Sea View June 25th 1831

Sea View from the opposite field June 29th 1831

Part of Sea View August 11th 1831

View of Ryde Pier from the Sea Field August 23rd 1831 118 A Present From Seaview

93 “Cottage and Rocks at Sea View June 25th 1831” Compare nos. 55 and 56 on pages 78 and 79. A Present From Seaview 119

94 “Sea View from the opposite field June 29th 1831” Compare no. 7 on page 30. 120 A Present From Seaview

95 “Part of Sea View August 11th 1831” Appears to be taken from the sea but further to the west than nos. 9 and 10 on pages 32 and 33. A Present From Seaview 121

96 “View of Ryde Pier from the Sea August 23rd 1831” Compare nos. 61 and 62 on pages 84 and 85. 122 123

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

No. Page No. Page

1 Fairy Hill in the Isle of Wight. Frontispiece 16 The house with the bay window is now 2 Sea View. 16 named Jumble Cottage. 2002. 39 3 Sea View, looking toward the Foreland Point. 18 17 Church Street from east of St. Peter’s Church. 4 From the Priory Fields, looking westward. 19 c.1878. 40 5 Priory Bay, looking toward the Foreland. 24 18 Church Street. 2002. 41 6 On the sands, Salterns - Ryde Pier, and Norris 19 “St. Peter’s Church. Bedford House.” 1877-78 42 Castle, in the distance. 25 20 Madeira Road. 2002. 43 7 From the sea. Undated c.1840. 30 21 The High Street in sunshine. July-August, 1868. 44 8 Sea-View. 31 22 The High Street in sunshine. 2002. 45 9 From the sea. 1888. 32 23 The High Street. July - August 1868. 46 10 From the sea slightly to the west 24 The High Street. 2002. 47 of the facing picture. 2002. 33 25 Looking up the High Street. July-August 1868. 48 11 “Clarence Villa”. 1875-77. 34 26 Looking up the High Street. 2002 49 12 Clarence Villa, subsequently Green Trees and 27 At the bottom of the High Street. 1868. 50 now Hill Grove. 35 28 From the same point. 2002. 51 13 The Green. July 1868. 36 29 From the bottom of the High Street. 1868. 52 14 From slightly to the left of the facing picture. 30 From the same point. 2002. 53 2002. 37 31 Looking east from the shore below the 15 Bottom of Old Seaview Lane. 1875-78. 38 Esplanade. 1875 -78. 54 124 A Present From Seaview

No. Page No. Page

32 The same view as the facing picture. 2002. 55 51 Seagrove Bay from Horestone Point. Undated. 74 33 From the Esplanade looking east. 1888. 56 52 Seagrove Bay from Horestone Point without 34 The same view as the facing page. 2002. 57 the Pier. 2002. 75 35 The Slipway, 1875-78. 58 53 “Horestone Bay” (i.e. Priory Bay). 1888. 76 36 The Slipway. 2002. 59 54 Priory Bay from near Nodes Point. 2002. 77 37 Woodside. 1868. 60 55 The Esplanade looking west toward the 38 The same view as the facing page but alas future Yacht Club. 1868. 78 without the ladies! 2002. 61 56 The Esplanade looking west toward the 39 West end of Seagrove bay perhaps taken Yacht Club. 2002. 79 from the Pier. ?1888 62 57 Hayward House and the Crown Hotel. 1868. 80 40 The same view as the facing picture but at 58 Hayward House and Crown Slip. 2002. 81 low tide. 2002. 63 59 Crown Hotel. 1868. 82 41 The shore looking east with the Old Cottage 60 From approximately the same point as the clearly visible. 1875-78. 64 picture on the facing page. 2002. 83 42 The same view as on the facing page 61 From Crown Slip looking west. 1875-78. 84 taken from the garden of Shoreside. 2002. 65 62 View from the same point. 2002. 85 43 The Old Boat House. Undated. 66 63 Salterns Cottages. 1904. 86 44 The Old Boat House. 2002. 67 64 Salterns Cottages. 2002. 87 45 Seagrove Bay looking east. 1888. 68 65 “Nettlestone Point and Salterns”. c.1878. 88 46 Seagrove Bay looking east at lower tide. 2002. 69 66 On the Dover. 2002. 89 47 Seagrove Bay from a point east of the Old 67 “Promenade along the sea wall, east of Ryde”. Boat House. Undated c.1878. 70 1875-78. 90 48 View from near the same point as on the 68 The same view of the sea wall beyond Puckpool facing page. 2002. 71 Park looking west. 2002. 91 49 Seagrove Bay and Horestone Point. 1875-78. 72 69 “Promenade along the sea wall, east of 50 Seagrove Bay and Horestone Point. 2002. 73 Ryde”. ? 1875-78. 92 A Present From Seaview 125

No. Page No. Page

70 Appley Tower looking east. 2002. 93 82a St. Helen’s Old Church Tower. 1978. 105 71 ? Fairy Hill Cottages, Holgate Lane. 82b St. Helen’s Old Church Tower. 2002. 105 Undated c.1878. 94 83 The beach west of Bembridge looking 72 Fairy Hill Cottages, Holgate Lane. 2002. 95 north east to Nodes Point. Undated. 106 73 The house on the left is Nettlestone House. 84 From about the same point as on the facing Undated c.1878. 96 page. 2002. 107 74a Nettlestone House obscured. 2002. 97 85 Where is it? No caption. Dated 1875-78. 108 74b Nettlestone House from the west. 2002. 97 86 The road to Nettlestone after the turn past 75 “St Helen’s Church, Isle of Wight” in print. St. Helen’s Church. 2002. 109 “1868, 1875-78” in manuscript. 98 87 Fairy Hill. 2002. 110 76a The gravestones are the same but the 88 Fairy Hill from the allotments at the top of view of the church is obscured. 2002. 99 Steyne Road. 2002. 111 76b View from the left of no. 76a. 2002. 99 89a Sea Grove. 2002. 112 76c View from the right of no. 76a. 2002. 99 89b Seafield House. 2002. 112 77 St. Helen’s Church. Undated c.1878. 100 90a Seaview House - north face. 2002. 113 78 View slightly to the right from that on the 90b Seaview House - west face. 2002. 113 facing page. 2002. 101 91 Seagrove Bay. Undated. 114 79 St. Helen’s Green. Undated c.1878. 102 92 Priory Bay. 1797. 115 80 St. Helen’s Green with the pond filled in. 93 Cottage and Rocks at Sea View 118 2002. 103 94 Sea View from the opposite field 119 81 St. Helen’s Old Church Tower. 95 Part of Sea View 120 Undated c.1878. 104 96 View of Ryde Pier from the Sea 121 126 A Present From Seaview A Present From Seaview 127

Love took up the glass of Time, and turn'd it in his glowing hands; every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands.

Tennyson 128 129 130