Farringford Hotel

Details

FRESHWATER

SZ38NW BEDBURY LANE 1354-0/4/171 Farringford Hotel 18/01/67

I

Hotel, formerly house. Late C18 house in Gothick style built by John Rushworth with extension of c1840, 1871 and C20. In November 1853 the house was rented and in 1856 purchased by Alfred Lord Tennyson who occupied it until his death in 1892 although from 1869 onwards he also had another house calld Aldworth near Haslemere to avoid the summer visitors in the Isle of Wight. Built of yellow brick with concealed slate roof and brick chimneystacks. 2 storeys and attics. The north or entrance front has 8 windows and 2 attic windows. Parapet with elementary castellation. At the east end is a projection containing 2 twin windows with 4 centred heads on both floors set jointly in a four-centred head. To the west of this is a shallow splayed porch with clustered wooden imitation bamboo columns and an enriched frieze. This is continued to the west in a verandah of 5 arches with depressed heads, keystones and a castellated parapet over. There is an entre sol whose windows open on to the roof of this verandah. The first floor above this is cantilevered out with 1 small bay containing 2 pointed windows and a cove beneath. Some of the windows are pointed, some only pointed in outline with wooden spandrels. All have Gothick glazing bars. At the east end is a c.1840 ground floor Drawing Room addition in matching materials. This has a twin window with 2 four-centred heads set in a third four-centred head facing north and a false gable over. Castellated parapet. The east front of this addition has a bay window. The south front of the house was originally L-shaped. The projecting south east wing has 2 twin windows with four centred heads and the recessed portion of this front 3 smaller windows. In 1871 Tennyson added a south west wing which makes the south front now half-H shaped. This contained a children's playroom or ballroom on the ground floor and his Library or Study above, which previously had been in the south west room on the second floor. This addition is in fairly matching style with a bay window facing south, a hipped slate roof and an octagonal turret containing a spiral staircase in the south east corner. C20 ground floor hotel dining room to south. The Staircase Hall has a late C18 staircase with 2 chamfered balusters to each tread, scrolled tread ends and mahogany handrail and a Gothick style cornice with imitation machicolations. The Cocktail Lounge has a Gothick arched doorcase with quatrefoil emblem and glazed Gothick fanlight. The Morning Room has a late C18 cornice and the Drawing Room a Gothick style wooden fireplace with iron firegrate. The 1st floor of the 1871 extension contains Tennyson's Study with an arched 6 panelled door and a late C19 wooden mantelpiece with iron firegrate with the initials ALT and various Tennyson memorabilia. Here Tennyson wrote "Balin and Balan" (the last of the Idylls of the King) "Locksley Hall", "Sixty Years After" and "Crossing the Bar". The turret staircase was a useful escape route to the grounds when unwelcome visitors called. Amongst visitors to Farringford in Tennyson's time were the Prince Consort, Benjamin Jowitt, Algernon Swinburne, Coventry Patmore, Edward Lear, Sir John Millais, Holman Hunt, George Watts, Sir Arthur Sullivan and Garibaldi who in 1864 planted in the grounds a Wellingtonia given to Tennyson by the Duchess of Sutherland. The house is Grade I for its historical interest as the home of Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Listing NGR: SZ3372786157

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

393058

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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