Institutional Landscapes
The category of ‘institutional landscapes’ covers designed landscapes linked with various types of institutions including hospitals, asylums, religious houses, prisons, schools, local government buildings, utilities, industrial sites and military sites.
Nationally, the late C18 and C19 saw the development of a variety of purpose-built hospitals which were typically set in a rural environment for the benefit of the patients, often within landscaped ground.
On the Isle of Wight hospitals and asylums emerge as a significant group with designed landscape designations covering the former National Cottage Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest at Ventnor (NHL II) and Whitecroft County Asylum (CA). There are also designed landscapes of local interest associated with religious institutions.
The National Cottage Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest (later the Royal National Hospital for Diseases of the Chest) at Ventnor was founded in 1868 at a time when open-air treatment for tuberculosis was beginning to be recognised as effective.
The basis for the layout at the hospital was ornamental measured walks: as patients improved, they could walk ever-longer distances.
Additional land was soon acquired, partly to retain open views to the sea, and partly for ornamental and productive purposes. The increased area of land also aided a new therapeutic ‘graduated labour’ treatment for patients who laid out much of the later structure.
Milk, eggs, vegetables and fruit were produced, while specimen trees were planted, some by the royal family.
Elements of the hospital garden layout survive within the Ventnor Botanic Garden.
Ventnor Botanic Garden is designated on the National Heritage List because of its significance as the grounds of an early chest hospital.
Hospitals for the local population built on the Island at various times since the mid C19 have included institutions at Ryde (Royal Isle of Wight Memorial Hospital), Newport (St Mary’s), Havenstreet (Longford Hospital), East Cowes (Frank James Hospital LB II) and Shanklin (Arthur Webster Memorial Hospital). These hospitals have been described by Laidlaw (1994) and are listed on the Wootton Bridge Historical website (2014).
Today, only St Mary’s at Newport remains in use as a hospital. No general survey has been carried out of the grounds of former hospitals.
Asylums for patients with mental illnesses were established in Britain chiefly after the County Asylums Act of 1808 and the majority date from after 1845. Grounds were often heavily planted with specimen trees, sometimes had parkland accommodating sports facilities, and in some instances incorporated a cemetery. Not untypically there were productive gardens and even areas of farmland beyond the main grounds.
The Isle of Wight County Asylum at Whitecroft was built from 1894-1896 in a rural location within a landscaped setting to the south of Carisbrooke. It remained in use until 1992.
Following the closure of the asylum, a Whitecroft Conservation Area was defined, and a Character Statement was prepared for the Conservation Area in 2004. This drew attention to the local associations and integrity of the site, the overall relationship of the buildings to the central clock tower (LB II) and the retention of most of the important structures on the site within much of the original landscape parkland setting, surrounded by mature planting including distinctive pine trees.
Some unsympathetic development took place at Whitecroft after the designation of the Conservation Area, but this has now been demolished and replaced with a more sympathetic scheme. The grounds are now being re-landscaped, the distinctive shelter belt of pines survives and the clock tower still dominates the surrounding countryside.
The grounds at Whitecroft are locally significant as an integral part of the Island’s only mental asylum and because the integrity of the landscape remains substantially intact.
A Catholic revival in the mid C19 and the arrival of religious orders from France in the late C19 and early C20 led to the establishment of various religious houses on the Island. These often utilised existing buildings such as Appley House at Ryde which were set in extensive grounds.
St Dominic’s Priory (LB II) near Carisbrooke was built for Dominican nuns in 1865-6 by the Countess of Clare. It had an enclosed garden, part of this being a pleasure garden with specimen trees and part being a kitchen garden.
The priory at St Dominic’s closed in 1989 and is now a Christian Healing centre. The garden remains in use and the kitchen garden is one of only two Island walled gardens built for a religious order on the Island, the other being at Quarr.
Quarr Abbey (LB I), between Wootton and Binstead on the Island’s north-east coast, is the home of Benedictine monks who came to England from France in 1901. In 1907 they bought Quarr House, a Victorian mansion with surrounding parkland.
New conventual buildings and an abbey church were soon constructed at Quarr. The existing designed landscape was modified (for instance by pollarded trees lining the drive leading to the abbey) and a walled kitchen garden was created.
The walled garden at Quarr (a curtilage listed building) is unusual for its large size, late date and association with an abbey rather than with a private house. It now contains ornamental planting and is in use as a tea garden.
The grounds at Quarr Abbey constitute a locally significant site as an example of a C19 designed landscape modified to meet the needs of a religious community in the early C20 and remaining substantially intact.
National and local institutions other than hospitals that have existed on the Isle of Wight since the late C18 include the ‘House of Industry’; prisons at Parkhurst, Albany (on the site of late C18 army barracks) and Camp Hill; and schools.
The House of Industry or workhouse, on the site now occupied by St Mary’s Hospital at Newport, was one of the earliest such institutions to be built in England and had extensive productive gardens but no trace of these remain. However, a late C18 or C19 wall which enclosed the ‘boys playground’ survives, as does a lawned area shown on the 1860s 25 inch Ordnance Survey map.
The architectural interest of some of the prison buildings at Parkhurst, Albany and Camp Hill has been described and some are Listed Buildings but no survey of the prison grounds has been carried out.
No general survey of school grounds has been carried out, but it is known that some schools are on the sites of former designed landscapes.
At Medina High School to the north-east of Newport, playing fields lie within the former grounds of Fairlee House, a C18 property which was demolished in the 1960s. The adjacent Medina Arboretum, created by Medina Borough Council in the late C20, also occupies land that was originally within the grounds of Fairlee House. This arboretum contains ponds, masonry foundations associated with Fairlee House and brick walls possibly associated with a walled garden. A track leading from Fairlee Road to the arboretum was originally the entrance drive to Fairlee House.
Cowes High School was built in the 1940s within the former landscape park attached to Northwood House. The school has recently been rebuilt with new hard landscaping, planting and formal pools in front of the main entrance. A few mature trees from the landscape park survive within the playing fields.
The independent Ryde School lies in the former grounds of Westmont, a C19 villa which still exists. Sports fields occupy the former pleasure ground to the north of the house.
Bembridge School, another independent institution now functioning as part of Ryde School, was founded in 1919 on a coastal site with buildings dating from 1925 and later (Lloyd and Pevsner 2006, 81) - the chapel and New House being LB II. The landscape setting of the school requires investigation.
Local government and civic buildings, utilities and public infrastructure sites, military complexes, industrial and commercial buildings may all be associated with designed landscapes.
No surveys of these site types have been carried out by the Isle of Wight Gardens Trust and the records of the Trust do not contain examples of designed landscapes within these categories.
The Island has many fortifications of C19 date, but these were mainly in exposed coastal locations and strictly functional in nature. However, Fort Victoria Country Park, maintained by the Isle of Wight Council, has a wooded cliff-top walk along a C19 military road occupying the former site of Norton Common.
The category of ‘institutional landscapes’ covers designed landscapes linked with various types of institutions including hospitals, asylums, religious houses, prisons, schools, local government buildings, utilities, industrial sites and military sites.
Nationally, the late C18 and C19 saw the development of a variety of purpose-built hospitals which were typically set in a rural environment for the benefit of the patients, often within landscaped ground.
On the Isle of Wight hospitals and asylums emerge as a significant group with designed landscape designations covering the former National Cottage Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest at Ventnor (NHL II) and Whitecroft County Asylum (CA). There are also designed landscapes of local interest associated with religious institutions.
The National Cottage Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest (later the Royal National Hospital for Diseases of the Chest) at Ventnor was founded in 1868 at a time when open-air treatment for tuberculosis was beginning to be recognised as effective.
The basis for the layout at the hospital was ornamental measured walks: as patients improved, they could walk ever-longer distances.
Additional land was soon acquired, partly to retain open views to the sea, and partly for ornamental and productive purposes. The increased area of land also aided a new therapeutic ‘graduated labour’ treatment for patients who laid out much of the later structure.
Milk, eggs, vegetables and fruit were produced, while specimen trees were planted, some by the royal family.
Elements of the hospital garden layout survive within the Ventnor Botanic Garden.
Ventnor Botanic Garden is designated on the National Heritage List because of its significance as the grounds of an early chest hospital.
Hospitals for the local population built on the Island at various times since the mid C19 have included institutions at Ryde (Royal Isle of Wight Memorial Hospital), Newport (St Mary’s), Havenstreet (Longford Hospital), East Cowes (Frank James Hospital LB II) and Shanklin (Arthur Webster Memorial Hospital). These hospitals have been described by Laidlaw (1994) and are listed on the Wootton Bridge Historical website (2014).
Today, only St Mary’s at Newport remains in use as a hospital. No general survey has been carried out of the grounds of former hospitals.
Asylums for patients with mental illnesses were established in Britain chiefly after the County Asylums Act of 1808 and the majority date from after 1845. Grounds were often heavily planted with specimen trees, sometimes had parkland accommodating sports facilities, and in some instances incorporated a cemetery. Not untypically there were productive gardens and even areas of farmland beyond the main grounds.
The Isle of Wight County Asylum at Whitecroft was built from 1894-1896 in a rural location within a landscaped setting to the south of Carisbrooke. It remained in use until 1992.
Following the closure of the asylum, a Whitecroft Conservation Area was defined, and a Character Statement was prepared for the Conservation Area in 2004. This drew attention to the local associations and integrity of the site, the overall relationship of the buildings to the central clock tower (LB II) and the retention of most of the important structures on the site within much of the original landscape parkland setting, surrounded by mature planting including distinctive pine trees.
Some unsympathetic development took place at Whitecroft after the designation of the Conservation Area, but this has now been demolished and replaced with a more sympathetic scheme. The grounds are now being re-landscaped, the distinctive shelter belt of pines survives and the clock tower still dominates the surrounding countryside.
The grounds at Whitecroft are locally significant as an integral part of the Island’s only mental asylum and because the integrity of the landscape remains substantially intact.
A Catholic revival in the mid C19 and the arrival of religious orders from France in the late C19 and early C20 led to the establishment of various religious houses on the Island. These often utilised existing buildings such as Appley House at Ryde which were set in extensive grounds.
St Dominic’s Priory (LB II) near Carisbrooke was built for Dominican nuns in 1865-6 by the Countess of Clare. It had an enclosed garden, part of this being a pleasure garden with specimen trees and part being a kitchen garden.
The priory at St Dominic’s closed in 1989 and is now a Christian Healing centre. The garden remains in use and the kitchen garden is one of only two Island walled gardens built for a religious order on the Island, the other being at Quarr.
Quarr Abbey (LB I), between Wootton and Binstead on the Island’s north-east coast, is the home of Benedictine monks who came to England from France in 1901. In 1907 they bought Quarr House, a Victorian mansion with surrounding parkland.
New conventual buildings and an abbey church were soon constructed at Quarr. The existing designed landscape was modified (for instance by pollarded trees lining the drive leading to the abbey) and a walled kitchen garden was created.
The walled garden at Quarr (a curtilage listed building) is unusual for its large size, late date and association with an abbey rather than with a private house. It now contains ornamental planting and is in use as a tea garden.
The grounds at Quarr Abbey constitute a locally significant site as an example of a C19 designed landscape modified to meet the needs of a religious community in the early C20 and remaining substantially intact.
National and local institutions other than hospitals that have existed on the Isle of Wight since the late C18 include the ‘House of Industry’; prisons at Parkhurst, Albany (on the site of late C18 army barracks) and Camp Hill; and schools.
The House of Industry or workhouse, on the site now occupied by St Mary’s Hospital at Newport, was one of the earliest such institutions to be built in England and had extensive productive gardens but no trace of these remain. However, a late C18 or C19 wall which enclosed the ‘boys playground’ survives, as does a lawned area shown on the 1860s 25 inch Ordnance Survey map.
The architectural interest of some of the prison buildings at Parkhurst, Albany and Camp Hill has been described and some are Listed Buildings but no survey of the prison grounds has been carried out.
No general survey of school grounds has been carried out, but it is known that some schools are on the sites of former designed landscapes.
At Medina High School to the north-east of Newport, playing fields lie within the former grounds of Fairlee House, a C18 property which was demolished in the 1960s. The adjacent Medina Arboretum, created by Medina Borough Council in the late C20, also occupies land that was originally within the grounds of Fairlee House. This arboretum contains ponds, masonry foundations associated with Fairlee House and brick walls possibly associated with a walled garden. A track leading from Fairlee Road to the arboretum was originally the entrance drive to Fairlee House.
Cowes High School was built in the 1940s within the former landscape park attached to Northwood House. The school has recently been rebuilt with new hard landscaping, planting and formal pools in front of the main entrance. A few mature trees from the landscape park survive within the playing fields.
The independent Ryde School lies in the former grounds of Westmont, a C19 villa which still exists. Sports fields occupy the former pleasure ground to the north of the house.
Bembridge School, another independent institution now functioning as part of Ryde School, was founded in 1919 on a coastal site with buildings dating from 1925 and later (Lloyd and Pevsner 2006, 81) - the chapel and New House being LB II. The landscape setting of the school requires investigation.
Local government and civic buildings, utilities and public infrastructure sites, military complexes, industrial and commercial buildings may all be associated with designed landscapes.
No surveys of these site types have been carried out by the Isle of Wight Gardens Trust and the records of the Trust do not contain examples of designed landscapes within these categories.
The Island has many fortifications of C19 date, but these were mainly in exposed coastal locations and strictly functional in nature. However, Fort Victoria Country Park, maintained by the Isle of Wight Council, has a wooded cliff-top walk along a C19 military road occupying the former site of Norton Common.