FARRINGFORD FRESHWATER ISLE OF WIGHT Analytical Record (RCHME 1996) LEVEL III Report prepared August - October 2008 ADDRESS: Bedbury Lane, Freshwater, Isle of Wight. PO40 9PE SITE NAME: Farringford MONUMENT TYPE: Country House SUB-DESCRIPTOR: marine residence LISTED BUILDING STATUS: I DATE OF LISTING: 18th January 1967 LISTED BUILDING Uid: 393058 NMR Unique Identifier: 459498 NGR: SZ 3373 8617 PARISH: Freshwater DISTRICT: Isle of Wight LOCAL PLANNING AUTHORITY: Isle of Wight Council Research and compilation: R.S.J. Martin BA TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.00 INTRODUCTION 2.00 GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY 3.00 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 4.00 THE PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT PHASE 1: pre 19th century The Site 5.00 THE PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT PHASE 2: 1802 Construction of Farringford Lodge. 6.00 THE PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT PHASE 3: 1805 – 1823 Development of Farringford Hill. 7.00 THE PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT PHASE 4: 1825 – 1844 Additions by John Hamborough. 8.00 THE PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT PHASE 5: 1856 – 1892 Additions by Alfred Lord Tennyson. 9.00 THE PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT PHASE 6: 1892 – 1939 Additions by Hallam Tennyson. 10.00 THE PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT PHASE 7: 1945 – 1963 Hotel: Thomas Cook. 11.00 THE PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT PHASE 8: 1960 – 1990 Hotel: Fred Pontin. 12.00 ARCHITECTURAL AUDIT (EXTERNAL) 13.00 ARCHITECTURAL AUDIT (INTERNAL) 14.00 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 15.00 SOURCES OF INFORMATION and BIBLIOGRAPHY GLOSSARY APPENDICES: A Historical Note on Freshwater Parish B Place-name Derivation C Rushworth D Parish Poor Rate E Regency Georgian Architecture F 19th Century Guide Books G Original House H Reverend Seymour I The Manor of Priors Freshwater J Williams-Ellis Report 1945 K Census L John Plaw M Skirting-board depths N Brick Analysis Note on Room Nomenclature In the report, the rooms of the house are referred to, according to their modern use, rather than their original function. The only exception is the sitting room next to the hallway and main sitting room, which is referred to using its original name, the ante room. The house is furnished with three sitting rooms, so to distinguish between them, the following names have been adopted: the main sitting room on the east of the house is termed the "drawing room"; the sitting room next to the latter is termed the "ante room"; and the sitting room next to the conservatory is termed the "lounge room". Today Tennyson's house c. 1871 Original house Drawing room Drawing room - Ante room Ante room Dining room Lounge room Breakfast room ? Boys' study School room Bar room Dining room Drawing room Reception room Hall area Library ? Office area Service rooms/courtyard Service rooms /courtyard Ladies & Gents toilets/ Service rooms/office/store room Service rooms Tennyson's Study New Study - Cellars: Tap room/beer cellar Dairy Dairy Store room Larder Larder Wine cellar Wine & beer cellar Wine & beer cellar 1.00 INTRODUCTION 1.01 Farringford is a Grade 1 Listed Building and was the main domicile residence of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate, from 1856 until his death in 1892. It continued in the possession of the Tennyson family until 1945, when it was sold to British Holiday Estates Ltd, who converted the house into a hotel. 1.02 Occupying a level position overlooking land to the north and east towards Afton Down, Farringford is a local landmark, that lies west of Freshwater Bay and south east of Middleton, with Tennyson Down on its south side [Map 1] . Indeed Farringford is tucked under the north side of this steep chalk down, where the sloping land flattens out as it extends northwards. The down is 147 metres at its highest point at Tennyson Monument and ranges down to 75 metres south of Farringford, while the house is only 35 metres above sea level. The area was developed at the very beginning of the 19th century from an area of small pasture enclosures, belonging to a holding called Walls or Farringford, but now called Home Farm. 1.03 The original house itself is essentially a large country villa, based on a Georgian plan and Georgian structural principles, but with superficial, cosmetic Gothic features, such as castellated parapets, Gothic arched windows, flattened arch veranda, Gothic porch and internal Gothic ornamentation to doors and cornices [image 01]. The house is constructed in buff-coloured brick in Flemish bond with a slate roof, and rests on a mixed stone foundation. 1.04 Farringford is unique on the Island in its style of architecture and its exterior form. Few other Gothic buildings have the same style of windows or porch and there is no other building that has the same lay-out in the form of an extended U. Most Gothic buildings of the 19th century are characterised by a neo-Elizabethan features such as square-headed windows with a drip-moulds above and gables. In a way, Farringford represents a hybrid house, combining the idea of proportion and symmetry of Georgian architecture with the idea of Gothic ornamentation. 1.05 Change has taken the form of extensions, rather than any rebuilding. The original house of Farringford has remained relatively intact and is little changed from its initial plan, the only structural change being the repositioning of the entrance from the east to the north side. Over the years there have been a number of extensions such that the original house has become somewhat swallowed up in new additions and the first neat Georgian frontage has been lost. Internally, where change has occurred, it has been in the function rather than the form of the rooms. 2.00 GEOLOGY and TOPOGRAPHY 2.01 The southern border of the parish is fringed by a long, high ridge of chalk which extends from the Needles through to Freshwater Bay or Gate and onwards east to terminate at Culver Cliff near Bembridge. The eastern boundary is formed by the River Yar that rises at Freshwater Bay in the south and proceeds in a northerly direction before joining the Solent at Yarmouth. The western edge is represented by cliffs that run from The Needles to Cliff End while the northern boundary is the low slumping cliffs of Norton. 2.02 The Freshwater region is very nearly an island, separated by a river estuary that extends northwards from Freshwater Gate on the southern shore of the island as far as Yarmouth in the north. This tidal estuary or creek derives from the River Yar and in effect it cuts the Freshwater presqu'ile off from the rest of the Island. The Yar is tidal as far as Freshwater causeway, south of which it becomes marsh wetland. 2.03 The southern half of the parish is dominated by the long, narrow ridge of the chalk downland that runs from east (at Freshwater Bay) to west (at The Needles) along the southern border of this parish. This down is 137 metres at the western end, rises to 147 metres at Tennyson Monument (the site of a former beacon) near the middle and then slopes down to almost sea level at Freshwater Bay. This stretch of downs forms a natural barrier, offering shelter from southerly winds. Otherwise the landscape is characterised by gently sloping land terminating in low slumping cliffs on the west and a gentle slope down to reed beds and mudflats of the Yar estuary on the east. 2.04 The geological formation which forms the bedrock of most of the southern area north of the chalk belongs to the Barton, Bracklesham, Thames and Lambeth Groups [Bagshot Beds, London Clay and Reading Beds of White, 1921] The Thames and Lambeth Groups consist mainly of muds and silty muds. Because of the action of folding on the Island, the strata that make up the formations of these groups have been forced into vertical alignments. This means that the Thames and Lambeth formations only form two very thin bands adjoining the north side of the chalk. The formations of the Bracklesham group form a wider band, which starts to broaden out to the west of Home Farm, extending itself north-eastwards towards Freshwater parish church. As a whole, the Bracklesham group consists of sand bodies, which alternate with heterolithic units consisting of finely interbedded muds, silts and sands. It is from the sand bodies within this part of the succession that most of the famous "coloured sands" derive. In the Barton group, there are four formations. There is the Boscombe Sand which consists of fine-grained, well sorted sand. There is the Barton clay which consists of various types of muds, some sandy, some laminated. There is the Chama sand, which consists of blue sandy clays. There is the Becton sand, which consists of white and pale yellow, fine-grained sands. 2.05 Farringford and its grounds thus lie predominantly on vertically-aligned sandy strata, although these are interspersed here and there with thin layers of muds, sandy clays and silts. Samples show units ranging from almost pure clay to mainly sandy soil (75% sand particles; 25% silt/clay). The topography of the area is characterised by land that gently slopes down away from Farringford to the north, west and east. On its north-east side, there is a small knoll at 30 metres. Farringford itself is located on a small plateau of ground at 35 metres, the land rising gently away on its south, while on its west, east and north sides the land falls away gently. 2.06 The area is watered by several small watercourses, that have helped to shape field boundaries, roads and paths. The main watercourse in the area is the River Yar that flows northwards from Freshwater Bay. The main stream in the area joins the Yar at Bow Bridge and runs west alongside the main street, School Green Road.