APPLE CRUMBLE HOUSE….and a Great Little Church on the Isle of White.

Apple Crumble House is the affectionate name for a fine old mansion that has seen much better days. APPULDERCOMBE HOUSE to give the house it’s proper title was once the Grandest House on the Isle of Wight.  It’s hay days were probably in the late 1700 thru to 1846.  The House was sold in 1855 as pert of the 1st. Earl of Yarboroughs Estate.  By all accounts, apart from being a Dedicated and well respected Naval Architect (and Founder of the Royal Yacht Squadron @ Cowes) he was an  effective and well like Estate Owner.  The House at one time became an hotel, then a School and for some time a temporary ‘overflow’ for a nearby Priory.

Thankfully, due to English Heritage, we can get a glimpse of this fine piece of English Baroque Architecture as they have rebuilt the East Front, glazed the windows and for the wings, a new roof. 

They have also reproduced the plaster moulding and pillars in part of one wings. as a further taster! For the rest of the building is now nothing but a shell, propped up in the odd place but open to the elements.

As for ‘Apple Crumble’ well the house had done just that crumble. But in my ignorance I thought it was, like many similar sized houses across England, fallen foul after the 1st W.W. to tax and death duties, with the roof being removed to prove ‘none residency’……..not so I was soon corrected. It would seem that during WW2 it was still occupied. Then one night a German Dornier Do117 was hit whilst trying to run the gauntlet of air artillery.  Damaged and needing to land, it jettisoned its bomb the plane the crashing into the side of the Down opposite the Hall.  As to the bomb, well it didn’t fall on the Hall but somewhere behind. Its was of such a size that the blast lifted the roof off Appuldurcombe House.

NOW a Great ‘Little’ Church.

A village next to Ventnor is known as BONCHURCH, and what a beautiful spot it is, no wonder writers and Artists  over the years have flocked here for peace, inspiration and a great place to get down to some creative serious work, names such as Dickens, Carlyle and Lord Macaulay were devotees to Bonchurch. To-day it is a thriving community, expansive new builds, more modest bungalows and of course the old Victorian village all blending together as if they have always been there.

But the Oldest building is the 11th Century Church of SAINT BONIFACE.  The Anglo Saxon name for the settlement was Bonercerce  (Bonchurch by adulteration).  Named in the Domes day Book the Church  was built between 1070 & 1098, measures a neat 48ft by 12 ft and is typical Norman style.   Evensong by candle light and Weddings are just part of the service the Church still offers the community. It is a treasure well worth tracking down.

Bonchurch Old Church – The Church of St. Boniface

10th July 2011