Haseley Manor

The middle Sunday of our stay on the Isle of Wight was open garden day at Arreton, a village in the middle of the island, an event involving four houses put together by the local scouts, represented on the day by ladies and gents in uniform, of much the same age as ourselves. The star attraction was a place called Haseley Manor, to be found at reference 1.

We started off in what I think was described as the herb garden, complete with a couple of herb wheels, one of which is snapped above. Complete with a medlar tree, otherwise Mespilus germanica. Google Images got in a bit of a muddle with the image above, but was clear enough when I zoomed in on a single cluster of fruits. Long description at reference 3, something a little more accessible at reference 4 - from which last I learn that you do not use the fruit rotten, as I had thought, rather bletted. It needs to be calmed down with frost and time to make it fit for consumption.

Not mentioned in the Boston Cook Book, but I had high hopes of Dorothy Hartley - but she, it turns out, gives them just a short paragraph. Some people, she tells us, like them for dessert, perhaps mashed up with cream and brown sugar, but she does not give the impression of being among them. I don't suppose we shall ever find out.

Not a tree much given to shooting from the trunk, but it has here for some reason. Rather to my surprise, Google Images had no trouble with this snap, containing little of the surrounding tree, identifying it as the New Zealand cabbage tree of reference 5.

A snack described as a cream tea, taken in an old shed which was clearly dressed for a wedding. We wondered how the place made a living - a great rambling old place, not open to the public any more, which must just soak up money - more money than one imagines one makes from weddings on Saturdays.

The booklet BH is holding in the snap above explains that the estate belonged to Quarr Abbey, more or less from the Conquest to the Dissolution, so a grange rather than a manor. Wound up with the Flemings at the beginning of the 17th century who had it until 1952, although they had stopped living in it for quite a long time before that, when it became part of a large farming operation. The house was more or less derelict when it went back into private hands in 1976, for massive restoration and subsequent opening to the public. A good fit with the nearby Arreton Barns operation, for which see below.

Presently owned by one Antony Roberts, a chap who has had an interesting life, but is best know for his work on burns. Indeed, a chap who used TB, badly burned in a car smash in his youth, may have been one of his customers. However, I thought £40 was a bit rich for the full story, particularly a story penned by someone who was not a writer by trade.

Looking down towards the Yar.

The large chimney at one corner of the house.

[top spot for medlar, right spot (I think) for wedding shed, left spot just to the left of the snogging shed, for which see below]

At some point, a picnic, taken on some convenient steps behind a shed somewhere in the grounds. Which led me on the hunt for self heal, as already noticed at reference 6. But before that, a young couple appeared, the gent making some cheerful but very coarse remark to his young lady. Neither of them seemed to mind a bit that we had seen and heard this little episode. Nor when I invited them to repair to the nearby snogging shed, snapped below. At that point I did not know that it was locked.

The next garden consisted of a fairly wild lake, at least that was the only part that was open, and we did not manage it all the way round. And decided that we had done enough open gardens for one day,

Then, heading for home, somehow or other we found ourselves heading north through Newchurch, and spotting the church up on a raised bank to the side of the road, pulled in to take a look. Quite near the fine bit of beech wood called Queen's Bower, which we have visited several times in the past. Named for the church which was newly built in 1087. There was a connection to Lyre Abbey in Normandy, and possibly to its founder William FitzOsbern, one of the Companions of the Conqueror. Presumably the term for the lords who put skin into the game, as it were, rather than the hired help from Flanders and Brittany.

The sounding board of the pulpit, repurposed. Looks quite heavy to be heaved up over the reading desk.

The pulpit itself. Rather darker brown than the lid. Different generation? Then the piano, noticed at reference 9.

A big, handsome space, if a little cold. Presumably far too big for the number of customers. BH bought some gooseberry jam off a table, just before we left.

Outside, the view down to the road below.

And a bit further along, a bit of a shubbery. A pleasant looking spot.

What had probably been the graveyard behind the church had been cleared, with just the one tomb (left) for one William Rutherford of Wacklands, who died in 1921. Our car right. All I have been able to find out about him so far is that he and his wife sent flowers to the funeral of Miss. Downer of Ryde in 1913. Hopefully I will do better later.

Home to mince from Tesco. Which I think rather better than the Sainsbury's equivalent, not least because it does not come in a tightly compressed and unsightly brick. Presence of a small amount of pasta suggests to me this afternoon, that this was the second outing, rather than the first.

PS 1: the gooseberry jam was finished today, in circumstances to be noticed in due course.

PS 2: Arreton is perhaps better known for its barns. A place which we have visited a couple of times and which, to me, seems rather old-fashioned. A hangover from the 1960s, when the island was a bigger holiday destination than it is now. See reference 2.

PS 3: later: some confusion between Wacklands, Wackland farm and the Wackland estate. Just the one Wackland on the map snapped above, on or near the lane of the same name. But there is a William Rutherford listed as a farmer in a commercial directory for 1904. Was he a gentleman farmer who occupied what is now a listed building? How did he have so much pull to get such a grand gravestone, all by itself? Did he pay for a new roof?

References

Reference 1: http://www.haseleymanor.com/.

Reference 2: https://arretonbarns.co.uk/. 

Reference 3: https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/mespilus/mespilus-germanica/.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mespilus_germanica.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyline_australis.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/self-heal.html.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haseley_Manor_(Isle_of_Wight).

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Howard_Norman_Roberts.

Reference 9: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/piano-89.html.

Reference 10: https://rshg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/DOWNERMary.29.9.1913.pdf.