Appley Towers, also called Appley Tower or Appley Tower House was an English country house near

Appley House Appley House (also: St Cecilia's Abbey) is an English country house and abbey in Appley Rise, Ryde, Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is ...

Appley, Isle of Wight Appley is an area of Ryde on the Isle of Wight.. Until the early 1960s, it was largely based on the former English country house of Appley Towers (seat of the Hutt family, and later of Sir Hedworth Williamson) and neighbouring Appley Farm. Th ...

. It was the home of the Hutt family, who bought it in the 1870s, and later of Sir Hedworth Williamson. The house has been demolished, but a number of its estate buildings survive.

House

The house was on an eminence with views of the sea, protected by a sea wall. It was

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

and Gothic Revival in style. There was a clock tower at the east end. After Sir William Hutt bought it in about 1870, he had the house, gardens and estate extensively remodelled.

Other buildings

In about 1875 Hutt had a

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

built just above the beach in the form of a castle tower. The tower is circular, with battlements, a turret and an external stair. It has Gothic Revival

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

windows, and an oriel window facing the sea. It survives and is a local landmark. The estate had a farm with stables and a turreted water tower. These buildings also survive, with the stables divided into three bungalows. Another surviving building is a 19th-century lodge on Appley Road, built in a Jacobethan and Dutch Revival style. The estate had a conservatory that measured . Near it was an

aviary An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds, although bats may also be considered for display. Unlike birdcages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flight cages. Avi ...

that housed rare species of parrots. There was also an

orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

. The kitchen gardens and forcing houses were on the opposite side of the road. A pier existed on the estate by the early 1870s. In 1873 it was replaced by a new 100 foot pier. By the end of 1911 the pier had undergone demolition although silting up of that area had rendered it unusable before that point.

Grounds

The grounds, described in 1878 in the ''Journal of Horticulture'', had a collection of trees including '' Acacias longifolia'', '' armata'' and concinna, '' Aralia papyrifera'', '' Araucaria brasiliensis'', Breadfruit ('' Artocarpus incisa''), '' Dracaena indivisa'', ''

Erythrina crista-galli ''Erythrina crista-galli'', often known as the cockspur coral tree, is a flowering tree in the family Fabaceae, native to Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil and Paraguay. It is widely planted as a street or garden tree in other countries, no ...

'', ''

Eucalyptus globulus ''Eucalyptus globulus'', commonly known as southern blue gum or blue gum, is a species of tall, evergreen tree endemic to southeastern Australia. This ''Eucalyptus'' species has mostly smooth bark, juvenile leaves that are whitish and waxy on ...

'' (from seeds received from Nice and Algiers) and peach-shaped-leafed ''Eucalyptus''. There were shrubs including '' Azaleas'', '' Aucubas'', '' Boronia serrulata'', '' Bouvardias'', '' Cantua dependens'', ''

Clianthus puniceus ''Clianthus puniceus'', common name kaka beak (''Kōwhai Ngutu-kākā'' in Māori), is a species of flowering plant in the genus '' Clianthus'' of the legume family Fabaceae, native to New Zealand's North Island. Description ''Clianthus p ...

'' and ''magnifica'', '' Correa × harrisii'', ''

Fuchsia ''Fuchsia'' () is a genus of flowering plants that consists mostly of shrubs or small trees. The first to be scientifically described, ''Fuchsia triphylla'', was discovered on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) ...

s'', ''

Grevillea rosmarinifolia ''Grevillea rosmarinifolia'', commonly known as rosemary grevillea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia and naturalised in other parts of the country. It is usually an er ...

'', ''

Hydrangea ''Hydrangea'', () commonly named the hortensia, is a genus of over 75 species of flowering plants native to Asia and the Americas. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Korea, and Japan. Most are shrubs tall, ...

s'', ''

Nerium oleander ''Nerium oleander'' ( ), most commonly known as oleander or nerium, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the only species currently classified in the ge ...

'' and '' Rhododendrons''. There were ferns including '' Alsophila excelsa'' and ''

Dicksonia antarctica ''Dicksonia antarctica'', the soft tree fern or man fern, is a species of evergreen tree fern native to eastern Australia, ranging from south-east Queensland, coastal New South Wales and Victoria to Tasmania. Anatomy and biology These ferns ...

''. Other plants included '' Abutilon'' "Boule de Neige", '' Abutilon vexillarium'', '' Cassia corymbosa'', '' Desfontainea spinosa'', ''

Dasylirion ''Dasylirion'' is a genus of North American plants in the asparagus family, all native to Mexico, with the ranges of three species also extending into the south-western United States. In the APG III classification system, it is placed in the fa ...

s'', ''

Eriostemon ''Eriostemon'' is a genus of flowering plants of the family Rutaceae. It is native to eastern Australia and includes just two species, '' E. australasius'' and '' E. banksii''. ''Eriostemon australasius'', commonly known as pink wax flower, oc ...

s'', '' Habrothamnus elegans'', ''

Lapageria ''Lapageria'' is a genus of flowering plants with only one known species, ''Lapageria rosea'', commonly known as Chilean bellflower or copihue (''copeewueh'', from Mapudungun ''kopiwe''). ''Lapageria rosea'' is the national flower of Chile. It ...

s'', ''

Phormium tenax ''Phormium tenax'' (called flax in New Zealand English; in Māori; New Zealand flax outside New Zealand; and New Zealand hemp in historical nautical contexts) is an evergreen perennial plant native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island that is an i ...

'', '' Rhynchospermum jasminoides'' and ''

Youngia ''Youngia'' is a genus of Asian plants in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae. There are several weedy species in the genus as well as the endangered ''Youngia nilgiriensis'' from Sispara in southern India, and '' Youngia japonica' ...

medio-picta''.

References

Sources

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External links

{{commons category, position=left, Appley Tower Country houses on the Isle of Wight Demolished buildings and structures in England Folly buildings in England Grade II listed buildings on the Isle of Wight Tourist attractions on the Isle of Wight