Woodlands Vale

The house, pleasure grounds and former kitchen garden occupy the south-west corner of the property with the parkland beyond to the north-east, east and south-east.

The parkland is planted with shelter belts of pine and holm oak with some clumps. A triangle of land at the south-west corner of estate was thickly planted with trees when Calthorpe Road was moved further to the south in about 1900.

The gardens and former parkland survive largely intact although these two elements of the Woodlands Vale estate are now separately owned. The house is now privately owned. There are a number of holiday chalets in the wooded grounds to the south and west of the house.

The garden has a strongly architectural structure with a series of terraces leading the eye down to the formal pool at the bottom of the garden. The pet cemetery within the garden is a typical Victorian element. A feature of particular historic significance is the Japanese garden created between 1896 and 1907, when oriental garden features were in vogue. The garden was designed to take full advantage of sea views to the north-east and glimpses of parkland to the east and south-east. These views are still intact, giving the site an important group value embracing the house, the garden with its important built features and the parkland beyond.

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

The Woodlands Vale estate is located to the east of Ryde in the Civil Parish of Nettlestone and Seaview and comprises 29.4 hectares (72.66 acres). It forms an irregular shape, fuller to the south-west and south-east, narrowing to the north-west with an elliptical curve at the south-west side. It is bounded on the south-west by Calthorpe Road, on the north-west by the western part of Puckpool Hill, to the south-west by part of Oakhill Road and to the north-east by Springvale Road. The land slopes from the south-west to the north-east affording views from the main house over parkland to the Solent and Palmerston's Spitbank Fort.

Entrances and Approaches

The main entrance is no longer through Salter's 1900-1 Woodlands Vale Lodge (Grade II) but is situated further north along the earlier road alignment of Calthorpe Road. The entrance drive skirts Garden Cottage and passes through the pleasure grounds to the north-west of the house. The drive rejoins the original carriage drive near the former stables of 1894 and the Coach House and proceeds in a north-easterly direction to the main house, terminating in a gravelled courtyard with entrance piers supporting ornamental glass and iron lamps and an arcaded wall with banded brick arches and terracotta finials of circa 1889 separating the courtyard from the gardens.

There is a back entrance into the parkland along the north-east boundary in Springvale Road.

Principal Building

Woodlands Vale, principally by Samuel Sanders Teulon and Stephen Salter, is listed at Grade II*, including Teulon's rose arches attached to the north-east of the house and other garden features linked to the house.

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

The formal gardens with their hard landscaping are situated mainly to the north-east of Woodlands Vale. The main layout of the gardens dates from the 1870s and 1880s with Japanese garden features added circa 1900. The garden has a strongly architectural structure with a series of terraces leading the eye down to the formal cruciform-shaped pool at the bottom of the garden and beyond to views across the parkland to the Solent and Spitbank Fort beyond.

A gravel terrace runs beside the north-east elevation of the house with a Gothic-style garden building built 1874 to a design by Teulon at the north-west end (Grade II). Below the gravel terrace at the north-west end is a pet cemetery. Steps descend from the centre of the gravel terrace on either side of an arched grotto to a central grass terrace divided by a gravel path with two brick multi-angled planters. (Until the 1990s a 1884 statue of a lion by J Stiff and Sons London occupied a plinth on the north-west side of the central terrace). To the north-west of the house a gravel terrace opens onto another grass terrace - The Seabreeze Terrace - which overlooks the central grass terrace.

A garden store dated 1889 is built beneath steps leading down from Seabreeze Terrace. From the central terrace a further set of steps descend to a semi-circular area of lawn with a central path leading to three linked formal pools with two fountains (the 'water temple' in the central pool was demolished in 1923). Along the north-east edge of the central terrace runs a pergola supported on brick columns with a garden shelter at the north-west end. From the west end of the pergola three flights of steps lead down a pathway running south-east. Each flight of steps is decorated with ceramic lanterns in Japanese style dated 1903. Beside the bottom set of steps is a wooden Japanese arch with three flat lintel beams. The steps and arch are listed Grade II. The path terminates in a gateway with brick piers and terracotta finials giving access to the park. From this point a grass path runs north-east alongside the edge of the park. Halfway along the path is a wooden open-fronted garden shelter of circa 1900 (Grade II). At the end of the path another gateway with brick piers and terracotta finials gives access to the park and steps with brick piers and terracotta finials lead back to the garden. A ha-ha separates the garden from the park.

The principal view is from the house and gardens across the falling parkland to the north-east which provides borrowed views over the Solent to Spitbank Fort. There are also views from the house and gardens over the parkland to the east and south-east.

The entrance drive skirts Garden Cottage and passes through the pleasure grounds to the north-west of the house, which comprise lawns with a planting of specimen trees and exotic species of coniferous and deciduous trees.

Park

The parkland is grazed. The south-western boundary of the park along Calthorpe Road, expanded to the south by Calthorpe between 1897 and 1909, has a thick belt of deciduous trees planted at that time to screen the main house from the road. The parkland is bisected by a narrow stream running from south-west to north-east and there is a small irregular pond towards the north-west. To the south-east of the house the parkland retains clumps of trees shown on the 1909 OS map and shelter belts shown on the 1898 map. Along Oakhill Road are the late C19 estate water tower, which has been converted into a residence, and the home farm, Woodlands Vale Farm. To the north-east of the house are further shelter belts masking houses beyond the estate boundaries and clumps of trees. The north-east and north-west sides are bounded by stone walls with brick curved coping. The shelter belt of trees along Puckpool Road is also part of Colonel Calthorpe's improvements, shown on the 1909 Ordnance Survey map.

Reasons for Designation

The Woodlands Vale estate is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

• Design quality: the Woodlands Vale estate contains a good and representative example of a formal garden laid out between the 1870s and 1890s with the addition of some fashionable Japanese features in the first decade of the C20. It is considered to be in the top three Victorian and Edwardian parks and gardens in the Isle of Wight.
• Designer: the rose arches and a summer house were designed by the distinguished architect Samuel Sanders Teulon.
• Group Value: the main house and attached garden features are listed at Grade II* and the parkland is integral with the house and garden and provides views to the north-east and south-east with borrowed views of The Solent and Spitbank Fort to the north-east. It is one of the most complete surviving gentry estates on the Isle of Wight and one of the few remaining estates on the Isle of Wight with an open outlook to the sea.

Date first registered: 20-Jun-2012

Updated: January 2021