Appuldurcombe House (also spelt Appledorecombe or Appledore Combe) is the shell of a large 18th-century
English Baroque
English Baroque is a term used to refer to modes of English architecture that paralleled Baroque architecture in continental Europe between the Great Fire of London (1666) and roughly 1720, when the flamboyant and dramatic qualities of Baroque ...
country house
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
of the
Worsley
Worsley () is a village in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, which in 2014 had a population of 10,090. It lies along Worsley Brook, west of Manchester.
Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county ...
family.
The house is situated near to
Wroxall on the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...
, England. It is now managed by
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
and is open to the public. A small part of the estate that once surrounded it is still intact, but other features of the estate are still visible in the surrounding
farmland
Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...
and nearby village of
Wroxall, including the entrance to the park, the Freemantle Gate, now used only by farm animals and pedestrians.
History
![OldAppuldurcombe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/OldAppuldurcombe.jpg)
Appuldurcombe began as a
priory
A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...
in 1100. It became a
convent
A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
, then the
Elizabethan
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
home of the Leigh family. The large
Tudor mansion was bequeathed in 1690 to
Sir Robert Worsley, 3rd Baronet
Sir Robert Worsley, 3rd Baronet Worsley (1643–1675, Appuldurcombe) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England during the Cavalier Parliament, representing Newtown on the Isle of Wight from 1666 to 1675. He was count ...
, who began planning a suitable replacement. Of the existing property, he wrote:
1702: Baroque mansion
![AppuldurcombeHouseWorsley](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/AppuldurcombeHouseWorsley.jpg)
The present house was begun in 1702. The architect was
John James. Sir Robert never saw the house fully completed. He died on 29 July 1747, in his memory a monument was erected overlooking the house on
Stenbury Down.
The house was greatly extended in the 1770s by his great-nephew Sir
Richard Worsley, 7th Baronet Worsley of Appuldurcombe. The newly extended mansion was where Sir Richard brought his new wife, the 17-year-old
Seymour Dorothy Fleming
Seymour Dorothy Fleming (5 October 1758 – 9 September 1818), styled Lady Worsley from 1775 to 1805, was a member of the British gentry, notable for her involvement in a high-profile criminal conversation trial.
Early life and family
Fleming ...
, whom he married "for love and £80,000".
Capability Brown
Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English la ...
was commissioned in 1779 to design the ornamental grounds at the same time as the extensions. A romantic ruined
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 ...
known as "Cooke’s Castle" was built on the hill opposite to improve the view. During Sir Richard's time, the house held a magnificent art collection and was the setting for Sir Richard's entertaining of some of the most eminent figures of the age.
Sir Richard's marriage quickly fell apart, and the couple's only child, a son, died in infancy. After he sued one of his wife's rumoured 27 lovers, the couple informally separated. Seymour could not remarry until Richard's death, and she became a professional mistress or demimondaine, living off the donations of rich men in order to survive, joining other upper-class women in a similar position in
the New Female Coterie
The New Female Coterie was an 18th-century London social club.
The exact founding date is unknown, though it is assumed to be circa 1770, when Caroline Stanhope, Countess of Harrington was blackballed from joining the Female Coterie, a club f ...
. Sir Richard died of
apoplexy
Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...
on 8 August 1805 at Appledurcombe, and was buried at the parish church at
Godshill
Godshill is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Wight, England, with a population of 1,459 at the 2011 Census. It lies between Newport and Ventnor in the southeast of the island.
History
Godshill is one of the ancient parishes that exis ...
. His title passed to his fourth cousin, Henry Worsley-Holmes, whilst his wife's £70,000 jointure () reverted to her, and just over a month later she remarried.
Worsley had left the estate saddled with heavy debts, but Appuldurcombe passed to his niece, Henrietta Anna Maria Charlotte (daughter of John Bridgeman Simpson). She married the Hon.
Charles Anderson-Pelham, later first Earl of Yarborough, in 1806. The founder of the
Royal Yacht Squadron
The Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS) is a British yacht club. Its clubhouse is Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom. Member yachts are given the suffix RYS to their names, and are permitted (with the appropriate warrant) to we ...
at
Cowes
Cowes () is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked by the Cowes Floa ...
, he made few changes to the house and was quite happy to retain the property as a convenient base for his sailing activities.
In 1855 the estate was sold. An unsuccessful business venture ran Appuldurcombe as a hotel, but with its failure, the house was then leased as Dr Pound's Academy for young gentlemen.
![Advertisement for Appuldurcombe College 1889](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Advertisement_for_Appuldurcombe_College_1889.jpg)
The house was inhabited in 1901–1907 by a hundred
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
monks who had been exiled from
Solesmes Abbey
Solesmes Abbey or St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes (''Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes'') is a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes (Sarthe, France), famous as the source of the restoration of Benedictine monastic life in the country under Dom Prosper Guà ...
in France and were shortly to settle at
Quarr Abbey
Quarr Abbey ( French: ''Abbaye Notre-Dame de Quarr'') is a monastery between the villages of Binstead and Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight in southern England. The name is pronounced as "Kwor" (rhyming with "for"). It belongs to the Catho ...
on the Isle of Wight.
Second World War: damage
Troops were billeted in the house during both world wars, and at the onset of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
the house was taken over by the military. On 7 February 1943, a German
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
Dornier Do 217
The Dornier Do 217 was a bomber used by the German ''Luftwaffe'' during World War II as a more powerful development of the Dornier Do 17, known as the ''Fliegender Bleistift'' (German: "flying pencil"). Designed in 1937 and 1938 as a heavy bomber ...
that was engaged in a mine-laying mission turned inland and dropped its final mine very close to the house, before crashing into St Martin's Down. The mine exploded, blowing in windows and causing the collapse of part of the roof.
The resulting hole in the roof was left unrepaired, and after the war much of the remainder of the roof and the interiors were removed and sold off.
Present
![Appuldurcombe House, IW, UK](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Appuldurcombe_House%2C_IW%2C_UK.jpg)
Although the house is now mainly a shell, its front section has been re-roofed and glazed, and a small part of the interior recreated. The house has become well known as one of the supposedly most haunted places on the island. There are frequent tales and claimed sightings of ghosts, phantoms and other supernatural phenomena.
During the summer holidays, weekly ghost walks are held at Appuldurcombe every Thursday evening.
As of January 2016, Appuldurcombe House and surrounding estate are for sale for £4.75 million.
References
External links
*
Appuldurcombe House websiteEnglish Heritage – Appuldurcombe House
{{Monasteries on the Isle of Wight , state=expanded
Monasteries in the Isle of Wight
English Heritage sites in the Isle of Wight
English Baroque architecture
Grade I listed buildings on the Isle of Wight
Reportedly haunted locations in South East England
Country houses on the Isle of Wight
John James (architect) buildings
Gardens by Capability Brown