Arreton Manor
Encyclopedia
Arreton Manor is a manor house
in Arreton
, Isle of Wight
, England
. Its history is traced to 872 AD to the time of King Alfred the Great and his parents. Once owned by William the Conqueror, as mentioned in the Domesday Book
in 1086, in the 12th century it became part of Quarr Abbey
and was used by the monks for over 400 years. In 1525 it was leased to the Leigh family. The manor was rebuilt between 1595 and 1612. Built in Jacobean
style, it is in the shape of a "H". It is also widely known on the Isle of Wight in folklore for its paranormal activity, particularly the ghost of a young girl named Annabelle Leigh who was murdered at the manor by her own brother in 1560.
around 885. Previously, it had been owned by his mother, Osburga, and her father Oslac, Chief Butler of England. The manor was owned by King Edward
before the Norman
conquest.
After 1086, it was owned by William the Conqueror. In 1100, it was granted to Richard de Redvers
, and was part of an endowment given to the monks of the Quarr Abbey
by his son Baldwin
in 1131. It was confirmed to the convent by Isabel de Fortibus in 1278. The manor was farmed by the monks in Quarr Abbey for about 400 years until 1525.
visited the manor several times. Sir Thomas Bennet
added the new porch and oak panelling in the major rooms. The original manor house was far older, however. It is claimed that Queen Mary
often visited Arreton Manor.
Arreton Manor was leased to several different farmers until 1628, when it was granted by the king to trustees to settle the king's debts to the City of London
. It was then bought by two merchants from the trustees. It was later bought by Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper
, Governor of the Isle of Wight. On Lord Culpeper's death, his daughter Lady Katherine, acquired the property. Lady Katherine married Lord Fairfax
and it stayed in the Fairfax family for 230 years. Its history then followed that of the island community, and the manor was farmed by the abbot's steward till 1525, when it was leased by the last Abbot William Rippon to John Leigh, who already held land in the parish. After the Dissolution
, it was granted to various farmers by the Crown until 1628, when it was granted by the king by trustees for the payment of his debts to the City of London. The manor then followed the same descent as that of Newport
to the Wykeham-Martin family, in whose hands it remained until the 20th century. Queen Victoria supposedly planted a conifer on the manor's south lawn.
of "stylized figure under cocked hat". The hall has panelling of simple design with fluted pilasters. The east side of the hall has the staircase (with rounded newels and widely spaced balustrades) concealed by an ordinary looking screen. On the first floor, in the bedroom, is an oak
mantelpiece with a curious carved panel above, representing the offering up of Isaac. It is Flemish
in character, and it is doubtful if it belongs to the rest of the chimney piece. The cellar of the house contains concrete block bearing a Rosy Cross
, and such a cross was previously included in a stained glass
window. This may suggest that Rosicrucians met at Arreton, probably within living memory.
Percy Stone’s Antiquities of the Isle of Wright illustrates many manor house chimney
designs; Arreton Manor had two such chimneys, one in-situ in the manor house while the other has been shifted to Priority Bay Hotel in St Helens
. This chimney piece, located in the west wing of the hall, reaching from floor to ceiling, is an excellent specimen of the work of the period. In the centre is a shield of arms: Gules a bezant between three demi-lions argent with the difference of a crescent, which are the coat of arms of Bennet in an arched frame, impaling a fess
with three trefoils in the chief; on either side are panels cross patterned representing Peace and War or "Mars
and the Goddess of Plenty" (small carvings in relief). The stone fire place here is simple.
with a four-centred arched opening and stone mullioned windows, and to the south stands a 17th-century barn of noble proportions, with a chestnut roof worthy of notice.
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
in Arreton
Arreton
Arreton is a village and civil parish in the central eastern part of the Isle of Wight, England. It is about 3 miles south east of Newport.-Name:The settlement has had different names and different spellings over the years...
, Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Its history is traced to 872 AD to the time of King Alfred the Great and his parents. Once owned by William the Conqueror, as mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
in 1086, in the 12th century it became part of Quarr Abbey
Quarr Abbey
Quarr Abbey is a monastery between the villages of Binstead and Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight in southern England. The name is pronounced as "Kor" . It belongs to the Order of St Benedict. The present imposing brick construction was completed in 1912. A community of about a dozen monks maintains...
and was used by the monks for over 400 years. In 1525 it was leased to the Leigh family. The manor was rebuilt between 1595 and 1612. Built in Jacobean
Jacobean architecture
The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated.-Characteristics:...
style, it is in the shape of a "H". It is also widely known on the Isle of Wight in folklore for its paranormal activity, particularly the ghost of a young girl named Annabelle Leigh who was murdered at the manor by her own brother in 1560.
Early history
Arreton Manor's history dates back to at least 872 AD. Land at Arreton was bequeathed to his younger son in the will of King Alfred the GreatAlfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
around 885. Previously, it had been owned by his mother, Osburga, and her father Oslac, Chief Butler of England. The manor was owned by King Edward
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
before the Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
conquest.
After 1086, it was owned by William the Conqueror. In 1100, it was granted to Richard de Redvers
Richard de Redvers
Richard de Redvers was a Norman nobleman, from Reviers in Normandy, who may have been one of the companions of William the Conqueror during the Norman conquest of England from 1066...
, and was part of an endowment given to the monks of the Quarr Abbey
Quarr Abbey
Quarr Abbey is a monastery between the villages of Binstead and Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight in southern England. The name is pronounced as "Kor" . It belongs to the Order of St Benedict. The present imposing brick construction was completed in 1912. A community of about a dozen monks maintains...
by his son Baldwin
Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon
Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon was the son of Richard de Redvers and his wife Adeline Peverel.He was one of the first to rebel against King Stephen, and was the only first rank magnate never to accept the new king. He seized Exeter, and was a pirate out of Carisbrooke, but he was driven out...
in 1131. It was confirmed to the convent by Isabel de Fortibus in 1278. The manor was farmed by the monks in Quarr Abbey for about 400 years until 1525.
16th–17th centuries
In 1525, it was leased by Abbot William Rippon to a parish landholder, John Leigh. The manor was rebuilt between 1595 and 1612. Charles ICharles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
visited the manor several times. Sir Thomas Bennet
Thomas Bennet
Thomas Bennet was an English clergyman, known for controversial and polemical writings, and as a Hebraist.-Life:He was born at Salisbury, England, on 7 May 1673. and was educated at the free school there. He entered St John's College, Cambridge in 1688, before he was fifteen, took the degrees of...
added the new porch and oak panelling in the major rooms. The original manor house was far older, however. It is claimed that Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
often visited Arreton Manor.
Arreton Manor was leased to several different farmers until 1628, when it was granted by the king to trustees to settle the king's debts to the City of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It was then bought by two merchants from the trustees. It was later bought by Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper
Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper
Thomas Colpeper, 2nd Baron Culpeper of Thoresway was the colonial governor of Virginia from 1677 to 1683.-Biography:...
, Governor of the Isle of Wight. On Lord Culpeper's death, his daughter Lady Katherine, acquired the property. Lady Katherine married Lord Fairfax
Thomas Fairfax, 5th Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Thomas Fairfax, 5th Lord Fairfax of Cameron was the great-grandson of Thomas Fairfax, 1st Lord Fairfax of Cameron. His father was Henry Fairfax, 4th Lord Fairfax of Cameron and his mother was Francis Barwick...
and it stayed in the Fairfax family for 230 years. Its history then followed that of the island community, and the manor was farmed by the abbot's steward till 1525, when it was leased by the last Abbot William Rippon to John Leigh, who already held land in the parish. After the Dissolution
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
, it was granted to various farmers by the Crown until 1628, when it was granted by the king by trustees for the payment of his debts to the City of London. The manor then followed the same descent as that of Newport
Newport (Isle of Wight) (UK Parliament constituency)
Newport was a parliamentary borough located in Newport , which was abolished in for the 1885 general election. It was occasionally referred to by the alternative name of Medina....
to the Wykeham-Martin family, in whose hands it remained until the 20th century. Queen Victoria supposedly planted a conifer on the manor's south lawn.
20th century
The house was purchased from Count Slade de Pomeroy by Jeanne Schroeder in 1987. She sold it to a family named Clark, who closed the house to the public in 1999. It was subsequently bought by Andy and Julia Gray-Ling in 2004, and re-opened to the public, during which time it played host to a Living History display by the Church, State and Household group every August. It is not open to the public again as it is now an 'upmarket' bed and breakfast.Architecture
Style
Arreton is a typical example of the Jacobean manor house of the old Isle of Wight house. It was rebuilt over an older house between 1637 and 1639 by Humphrey Bennett. He had purchased the old house in 1630. The manor was built as a two storied structure in an “H” layout; such a centre block with projecting wings was common in the 17th century. The extended portion on the left side, which was added in 1832 in the same architectural style, has disturbed the structure's symmetry. The interior woodwork is elaborate, but the exterior is plain.Interior
The original inner door with its knocker still remains. The plan has a central hall with rooms on either side; the western portion is comparatively modern. In the room to the right of the hall, the panelling is noteworthy, though some of it has evidently been brought from elsewhere. The cornice is supported by well-proportioned turned columns, with square pilasters below the mantelshelf. Also seen is a freeze of the foliage and garlands suspended from the lions’ mouths. The house has 17th century panelling with Ionic pilasters which have decorations of vine stems, particularly on the west wall. The windows in the manor house are "mullioned in the range of three to five". On the east wall, there is pilasterPilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
of "stylized figure under cocked hat". The hall has panelling of simple design with fluted pilasters. The east side of the hall has the staircase (with rounded newels and widely spaced balustrades) concealed by an ordinary looking screen. On the first floor, in the bedroom, is an oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
mantelpiece with a curious carved panel above, representing the offering up of Isaac. It is Flemish
Flemish
Flemish can refer to anything related to Flanders, and may refer directly to the following articles:*Flemish, an informal, though linguistically incorrect, name of any kind of the Dutch language as spoken in Belgium....
in character, and it is doubtful if it belongs to the rest of the chimney piece. The cellar of the house contains concrete block bearing a Rosy Cross
Rosy Cross
The Rosy Cross is a symbol largely associated with the semi-mythical Christian Rosenkreuz, alchemist and founder of the Rosicrucian Order...
, and such a cross was previously included in a stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
window. This may suggest that Rosicrucians met at Arreton, probably within living memory.
Percy Stone’s Antiquities of the Isle of Wright illustrates many manor house chimney
Chimney
A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...
designs; Arreton Manor had two such chimneys, one in-situ in the manor house while the other has been shifted to Priority Bay Hotel in St Helens
St Helens, Isle of Wight
St. Helens is a village and civil parish located on the eastern side of the Isle of Wight. The village is based around village greens. This is claimed to be the largest in England but some say the Village Green is the second largest. The greens are often used for cricket matches during the summer...
. This chimney piece, located in the west wing of the hall, reaching from floor to ceiling, is an excellent specimen of the work of the period. In the centre is a shield of arms: Gules a bezant between three demi-lions argent with the difference of a crescent, which are the coat of arms of Bennet in an arched frame, impaling a fess
Fess
In heraldry, a fess or fesse is a charge on a coat of arms that takes the form of a band running horizontally across the centre of the shield. Writers disagree in how much of the shield's surface is to be covered by a fess or other ordinary, ranging from one-fifth to one-third...
with three trefoils in the chief; on either side are panels cross patterned representing Peace and War or "Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
and the Goddess of Plenty" (small carvings in relief). The stone fire place here is simple.
Exterior
The building was constructed with “limestone rubble with freestone dressings”. It has gabled roofs with a symmetrical front elevation. The porch is double storied and the hall on the southeast is entered through this porch. The porch, with its date tablet of 1639, is an addition put up soon after the house was finished.Grounds
Arreton Manor House lies under the south slope of the chalk down. The manor is close to the church. To the east of the house is a 16th–17th century dovecoteDovecote
A dovecote or dovecot is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in...
with a four-centred arched opening and stone mullioned windows, and to the south stands a 17th-century barn of noble proportions, with a chestnut roof worthy of notice.