The Big House: One Street#12

Oh dear, two days of work and I succumbed to the lurgy, hence no blipping for the last couple of days. I feel a bit better now, the light is on but nobody's at home!
Anyway, I managed a bracing stroll down to the pier while the sun was shining to get the next in the one street series. I'm still on the end of the pier but looking west into Kitchen Cove and here you can glimpse the big house, nestling amidst all those interesting and verdant trees. A spot of research, inspired by the excellent work of angellightphoto , and it seems to have been built pre 1842 for the os map of that date shows a house and extensive formal gardens. By 1913 the house had expanded and included a stable block and lodge. The 1911 census shows a Major Charles William Bowlby was living there with is daughter Madge, aged 17, his newly married daughter in law Frances; Marcella McKnight, the cook; Mary McKnight, the housemaid and James Mahoney,33, the groom. The house, classified as Ist Class, had 14 rooms, 14 windows to the front and was made of stone with a slate roof. There were normally 6 in the family, the Major's wife Fanny and his two sons, Adelbert (!) and Gerald being elsewhere on the census night. A stable, coach house, harness room, fowl house and workshop completed the estate.

There's an odd story that the house was built, or renovated by William Davenport, who was immortalised as 'the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo'. He seemed to have arrived, later followed by a mysterious Frenchwoman,spent masess on the house, then disappeared. He was later found guilty of fraud and embezzlement.
By the 1940s the house was a hotel but when we arrived 10 years ago it had been empty for many years, the beautiful gardens running amuck though you could still get an idea of their former glory by hints of little bridges, cobbled pathways and some amazing trees - ferns, acacias, maples, rhodendrons,huge copper beeches. Rumours then were that Terence Stamp had brought the proeprty but that came to nothing. About 5 years ago Mr Norton bought it and has done a fantastic job restoring the house. Biggify to see the delightful stone seat where you can sit, shaded by the conifer, and gaze out to sea. A wonderful spot.

This is the twelfth in my one street project - you could peek at them all here if you fancied