Steephill

Last updated

Steephill Castle c 1910 Steephill Castle, Ventnor c1910 - Project Gutenberg eText 17296.jpg
Steephill Castle c 1910

Steephill is a hamlet near Ventnor, Isle of Wight, England, previously the location of a Victorian country estate with a castle-style mansion, Steephill Castle, which was demolished to build bungalows in the 1960s. Steephill itself now forms part of the suburban development westward from Ventnor.

Steephill Cove, on the coast some 400 yards to the south, has several kiosks and self-catering cottages. Fish can be bought beneath a sign which states "Wheeler and Sons; Fishermen since the 1500s". The cove is accessible only on foot; it is about 200 yards from Undercliff Drive, and is on the Isle of Wight Coastal Path directly adjacent to Ventnor Botanic Garden.

Steephill was the location of a country estate since the time of Hans Stanley, governor of the Isle of Wight, who built there in landscaped surroundings a rustic-style house called The Cottage during his first term of office 1764–1768. After his death the estate was purchased by Wilbraham Tollemache. It was his favourite residence until his death in 1821, after which the estate was sold in 1828 to John Hambrough, who built Steephill Castle in 1835 on the site of The Cottage. [1] In 1836 Hambrough paid for the construction of St Catherine's Church, Ventnor's parish church. [2]

His descendant Windsor Dudley Cecil Hambrough was the victim in the Ardlamont House Murder of 1893 and is buried in the churchyard of St Catherine's Church. [3]

Its next owner was John Morgan Richards, an American businessman who bought it in 1903. His daughter, the novelist Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie (pseudonym "John Oliver Hobbes") lived near the Castle from 1900 to 1906, writing a number of her works there. [1]

The Castle was auctioned after Richards' death after World War I. It then saw service as a hotel with the Holiday Friendship Association (with a period as a school during World War II) until 1959, when upkeep and fire safety issues made this use increasingly unviable. Ethel Garton my grandmother was the manager of Steep Hill Castle in that last year of 1959. Aged 5 I distinctly remember the austere and baronial grand architecture in that warm sunny summer of 59, it had a very church like character. Adder snakes were common in the undergrowth and the path through the woods to the cove was overgrown and wild in that year. Unused, its condition deteriorated thereafter, until a demolition order was obtained in 1963. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ventnor</span> Town on the Isle of Wight, England

Ventnor is a seaside resort town and civil parish established in the Victorian era on the southeast coast of the Isle of Wight, England, eleven miles (18 km) from Newport. It is situated south of St Boniface Down, and built on steep slopes leading down to the sea. The higher part is referred to as Upper Ventnor ; the lower part, where most amenities are located, is known as Ventnor. Ventnor is sometimes taken to include the nearby and older settlements of St Lawrence and Bonchurch, which are covered by its town council. The population is 5,567 according to the 2021 Census

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Cowes</span> Human settlement on the Isle of Wight in England

East Cowes is a town and civil parish in the north of the Isle of Wight, on the east bank of the River Medina, next to its west bank neighbour Cowes. It has a population of 8,428 according to the 2021 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Lawrence, Isle of Wight</span> Human settlement in England

St Lawrence is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ventnor, on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, in southern England. It is located to the west of the town of Ventnor, in the Undercliff, which is subject to landslips. The Undercliff lies between the original high cliff and the sea, formed over thousands of years, since the last Ice Age, from accumulated landslips. Several rocky coves can be accessed from the coastal path, which affords fine views of some prominent Victorian villas, set in a wooded landscape below the great rock wall of the original sea cliff: Woody Bay, Mount Bay and Orchard Bay. The area of the parish was around 329 acres (133 ha) in size. In 1931 the parish had a population of 329. On 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Ventnor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ventnor Botanic Garden</span> Isle of Wight botanical garden

Ventnor Botanic Garden is a botanic garden located in Ventnor, Isle of Wight. It was founded in 1970, by Sir Harold Hillier, and donated to the Isle of Wight Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norris Castle</span> Building in East Cowes, United Kingdom

Norris Castle is located on the Isle of Wight. It was designed by James Wyatt for Lord Henry Seymour. The estate adjoins Osborne House, country home to Queen Victoria. On the other side of Norris Castle sits the Spring Hill estate, bought by William Goodrich in 1794. Norris Castle was built in 1799 and sits in 225 acres of land, with a mile of waterfront. The Castle is a Grade I listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Cowes Castle</span>

East Cowes Castle, located in East Cowes, was the home of architect John Nash between its completion and his death in 1835. Nash himself was the designer of the site, and began construction as early as 1798. It was completed in 1800 and was said to have been built at unlimited expense. Nash was finally interred in the grounds.

The Ardlamont Murder, which took place in Argyll, Scotland, on 10 August 1893, gave rise to two high-profile court cases: a murder trial in Edinburgh, and a defamation trial in London the following year.

Hans Stanley, PC was a British diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1743 and 1780.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ventnor West railway station</span> Former railway station in Isle of Wight, UK

Ventnor West railway station was in operation from 1900 to 1952 in Ventnor, Isle of Wight.

Puckaster is a hamlet on the Isle of Wight, England. Puckaster is on the southern coast of the Isle of Wight, south of Niton, between St Catherine's Point and Binnel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Catherine's Church, Ventnor</span> Church

St Catherine's, Ventnor is a parish church in the Church of England located in Ventnor, Isle of Wight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orchard Bay</span> Bay in England

Orchard Bay is a sandy bay and shingle beach on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, England. It lies to the south-west of the Ventnor Botanic Garden and just along the coast west from Steephill Cove. It faces south towards the English Channel, its shoreline is 220 yards (200 m) in length - 65 yards (60 m) of which is beach.

John Morgan Richards, was an American businessman and entrepreneur who made his fortune from the promotion of patent medicines and American cigarettes in Britain. He was the father of the novelist Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Oliver Hobbes</span> American writer

Pearl Mary Teresa Richards was an Anglo-American novelist and dramatist who wrote under the pen-name of John Oliver Hobbes. Though her work fell out of print in the twentieth century, her first book Some Emotions and a Moral was a sensation in its day, selling eighty thousand copies in only a few weeks.

Steephill Manor is a British manor house on the Isle of Wight, situated within the Newchurch parish.

The Undercliff, Isle of Wight, England is a tract of semi-rural land, around 5 miles (8.0 km) long by 0.25–0.5 miles (0.40–0.80 km) wide, skirting the southern coast of the island from Niton to Bonchurch. Named after its position below the escarpment that backs this coastal section, its undulating terrain comprises a mix of rough pasture, secondary woodland, parkland, grounds of large isolated houses, and suburban development. Its sheltered south-facing location gives rise to a microclimate considerably warmer than elsewhere on the island. Although inhabited, the Undercliff is an area prone to landslips and subsidence, with accompanying loss of property over time. Settlements along the Undercliff, from west to east, are: lower Niton, Puckaster, St Lawrence, Steephill, the town of Ventnor, and Bonchurch.

John Arthur Fyler was an English politician, Conservative Member of Parliament 1903–04 for the English constituency of Chertsey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pipewell Hall</span>

Pipewell Hall in Northamptonshire, England, is a building of historical significance and is Grade II listed on the English Heritage Register. It was built near the ruins of a Cistercian abbey in 1675. At this time it was owned by the Barons of Powis. The house was constructed from the stones of the abbey. The Hall was the home of many notable people over the next three centuries and is now a wedding venue.

References

  1. 1 2 "Steephill Castle, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, the residence of John Morgan Richards, Esq.; a handbook and a history", John B Marsh, privately published by Dangerfield Printing Company, 1907 (Internet Archive ark:/13960/t6g168955)
  2. ↑ Page, William (ed.) (1912). "A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5. Parishes: Newchurch". Victoria County History of Hampshire. British History Online. pp. 177–187. Retrieved 26 July 2017.{{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  3. ↑ Archibald, Malcolm (May 2019). Whisky wars : riots and murder in the 19th century Highlands and Islands. Edinburgh. ISBN   9781785302398. OCLC   1099339931.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ↑ "The Forgotten Castle", David Paul, round-the-island.co.uk (originally pub. in Wight Life, August/September 1973 - retrieved from Internet Archive, 10 July 2013)

50°35′27″N1°13′24″W / 50.5907°N 1.2233°W / 50.5907; -1.2233

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.