South Horrington

Tags

Albert Memorial, Care in the Community, Friends of the Mendip Hospital Cemetery, Gilbert Scott, Mendip Hospital, Mendip Hospital Cemetery, Reading Gaol, Somerset and Bath Pauper Lunatic Asylum, South Horrington, St Pancras Station, Tone Vale Hospital, Wells

Christmas Day 2020, and for the first time in my life I was going to spend the whole day alone. Not a problem – but I did want to do something a bit different.

For months I had been wanting to take photos of and write a blog post on a beautiful complex of buildings a couple of miles east of the lovely cathedral city of Wells, and just 20 minutes from where I live. The sun god gave its blessing in the morning, and I drove to South Horrington, a village centred around a converted 19th century mental hospital. The hospital’s principal architect was the prolific Sir (George) Gilbert Scott, 1811-1878, known mainly for his ecclesiastical work, but who designed many workhouses and asylums in the early stages of his career. Reading Gaol, St Pancras station and the Albert Memorial all appear in his portfolio of more than 800 buildings, designed or altered.

Later known as Mendip Hospital, this complex opened as the Somerset and Bath Pauper Lunatic Asylum on 1st March, 1848. It soon filled beyond its capacity, attics were turned into dormitories, and its principal psychiatric function was transferred in 1897 to the Tone Vale Hospital near Taunton. But it continued to house long-stay elderly and mentally infirm patients, until 1991 when it was closed under the Care in the Community policy. It was then converted into ‘luxury’ flats and houses, which I discovered in 2011 when I was about to return from France and looking for somewhere to live. I did not pursue the idea of living there for a number of practical reasons, but aesthetic distaste was not among them!

I had driven round the grounds on a few occasions since, but this was the first time I had got out of my car. I parked in:

(A strangely tatty entrance panel for such a beautiful and prestigious site)

(I took this photo towards the end of my stroll, my car being parked by the ‘D’ of ‘Road’, bottom right.)

I have not been able to find the significance of the various colours, and indeed I have been able to find very little detail, historic or otherwise, about the buildings as a whole, apart from the links I have indicated. Given that Gilbert Scott designed so many such, perhaps this is not so surprising.

Looking back from where I parked,

and walking on.

The splendid entrance to the building. An apartment in here is for sale at the time of writing.

I walked clockwise around the complex.

This corner particularly appealed, though I imagine it gets little, if any, sun.

The part jutting out on the left is opposite the main entrance.

The chapel’s spire appears over a collection of houses

One of the reasons I did not, ten years ago, pursue the idea of living here was the assumption that I would not be allowed to have a cat flap in my front door. The building is Grade II listed. But, although I saw several of these notices, I saw people out walking their dogs, always on a leash.

To the Chapel without getting wet

The residences on the right appear as old as the rest of the complex, but…

The Chapel also is converted into accommodation units.

Well, maybe catflaps are allowed…

I should love to know more about the arches below, and hoped to find that there was some society interested in the history of the place. All I have found is the Friends of the Mendip Hospital Cemetery. [Later edit. I have since come across this: https://www.countyasylums.co.uk/mendip-wells/ ]

The cemetery is a mile or so away towards Wells, and I did look in 2011 at a property, the back garden of which abuts on to it. I was tempted. To have a nature reserve at my back garden would have been wonderful. There was just a lovely low stone wall between the bottom of the sloping garden and the cemetery, and wonderful views beyond the it to distant wooded hills. But the house needed too much work.

Towards the end of my walk, I got chatting with this couple (with dog!). They had lived in South Horrington, at three different addresses, for 20 years. They loved it, and they particularly extolled the walks there were in various directions, including Wells city just 20 minutes away.

Completing the circuit to my car took me along a footpath and past Fire Engine Cottage.

And for some silly reason I took a selfie.

Here’s wishing you a much happier New Year!

Buckinghamshire 1

Tags

Albert Memorial, Alice in Wonderland, Disraeli, Gladstone, Hillside, Hughenden, Lewis Carroll, National Trust, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, red kite, Sybil, Tenniel, Venetia

I stayed with friends in central Buckinghamshire, on the north-west edge of the Chiltern Hills, recently.  They laid on a great programme of visits for me, mostly at National Trust properties. (We are all members.)

The first was to Hughenden, the home of 19th century British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, later Earl of Beaconsfield, (1804-1881).  Images, in two and three dimensions, of Disraeli abounded throughout the house. I have no idea whether this one was added in his lifetime.This was the first we saw inside the house. in the porch.But I stopped taking photos of them after that.

Dining room. The chair with its back to the fireplace has especially low legs, for Queen Victoria. (Won’t she have needed a lower table as well?)

John Tenniel was a great cartoonist (in Punch Magazine for over 50 years) and illustrator, perhaps most well-known for his work on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.  It is thought that Disraeli may have been the model for the Mad Hatter.The feud between Tory Disraeli and Whig W S Gladstone (1809 -1898) was one of the great political confrontations in British 19th century history.  When the latter succeeded the former as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he refused to pay for the furniture of 11 Downing Street, so Disraeli refused to hand over the Chancellor’s robe.  It has been at Hughenden ever since.

This Trust volunteer seemed to fit the library so well.

Over the mantelpiece of this bedroom is a double portrait of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, given by the Queen to Disraeli in grateful recognition of his securing funding for the Albert Memorial.

Political insult ain’t what it used to be.

Disraeli was a prolific novelist throughout his life.  (He wrote a novel, not as well-known as some of the others, though still available, called Venetia.)  Here is one of his better known, Sybil. A whole room was devoted to his writings.During World War II, Hughenden was known as Hillside, a secret target map-making base, and there was an exhibition about this in the basement.

Reconstruction of the resident family’s sitting room

It was good to go outside to the rear garden.I noticed these original hinges on the stable doors  Buckinghamshire is red kite country, and, back at my hosts’ house, I was pleased to see the birds swooping overhead, though less pleased with my photographic efforts.  However, one kite kindly settled in a tree some way away. Not one, but two National Trust properties the next day, (though one did not allow inside photography).