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Published: August 12th 2012
Godmanchester's town sign
See text for description of what's on it.Here's a mansion home with an unusual history. It's a history related to us by the owner, Christopher Vane Percy
(a descendant of Thomas Percy of failed 1605 'Gunpowder Plot' fame), and his wife, Lady Linda
(a member of the noble Grosvenor family) when we visited
Island Hallwith friends last week.
First, though, a word about the location of this delightful house. It's in the pretty little town of Godmanchester, which stands on the River Great Ouse in the county of Cambridgeshire. It's about 90 kms (55 miles) north of London.
It's surprising what you can discover simply by looking at a town's sign. The one seen here depicts the River and a
"Chinese" Bridge that spans it, a Roman legionnaire, a Danish longboat, St Mary's Church, and a ploughman. Godmanchester is known to have been continuously inhabited for more than 2,000 years - originally by Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. It was the latter who gave it the name of
Godmundceaster, meaning a "town of Roman buildings associated with a man called Godmund". Don't ask me who Godmund was - possibly, he was a Norse king. Certainly, it was the Danes who created the large expanse of water that still exists
A view of this lovely home
This is the back of the house, facing towards the garden, the river and the island beyond. near the town centre, the Mill Lade, for turning their longboats. Before them, the Romans had built a fort in the town to protect the junction of their roads from London to Lincoln and York (Ermine Street) and from Colchester to Chester, and it was the Anglo-Saxons who took the town by force from the Romans and gave it the name. The Domesday Book mentions a church where St Mary's now stands, and the ploughman represents the large farming community that existed here at the time the town was first chartered by King John in 1212. So, that's the history of the town in a nutshell - or on a sign anyway!
Island Hall's history is equally complex. Unusually for such a grand house, it's slap-bang in the centre of the town, perhaps because the Jackson family who built it in 1749 wanted it to be a very obvious sign of their wealth. The red brick mansion was constructed in such a way that, whether you approached it from the town or from the river, it looked just the same, or at least it did in 1749. Alas, where a kitchen garden and stable block once stood amid parkland
at the front of the house, there's now a school and a road among other things so, although the early-Georgian facade is the same, the front garden is now comparatively tiny. The back of the house, however, still leads to a tranquil 1½ acre garden enclosed by 18th-century brick walls and mature trees, and across a neatly-mown croquet lawn to the river. There, a recreated bridge leads to the Hall's private two-acre island with its views towards the largest water meadow in the whole of England.
The house was acquired by the great-great-grandfather of its present owner and remained a family home for about 150 years until it was requisitioned for military use during the Second World War. The garden was torn up and covered by
Nissen huts. Inevitably, the house itself suffered badly too and, at the end of the war, it was taken over by the local authority under the Emergency Housing Act. They converted the house into tiny flats and even used the old huts for accommodation. The family's connection with the house was now completely severed.
Mr Percy recalls having seen the house for the first time on a boating trip in 1957 and, although,
Inside Island Hall
Christopher Vane Percy enthralled us all with tales of his ancestors. at the time, he knew nothing of the house's history or his ancestors' connection with it, he had a schoolboy dream of one day living there.
During the Firemen's Strike of 1977, perversely, a fire broke out on the ground floor of the house, in the flat of a lady who made hats, and despite the
Green Goddesses' best efforts to put out the flames, this eventually gutted the south wing. The mansion was in a state of dereliction when, a year or two later, it was acquired for a fraction of its worth by one Simon Herttage who, aided by grants from the Historic Buildings Council, went on to spend time and money repairing the building.
In 1983, Mr Percy noticed, by chance, the now-restored Island Hall for sale in a small newspaper advertisement. He'd made a few bob from buying a dilapidated house in London and restoring it to become very valuable in the much improved housing market of the time so, without telling his wife, he arranged for his solicitor to make an offer on the house he'd previously dreamt of owning. By the time he'd summoned up the courage to take his wife to view
...and The Queen came too
Our friend checks out entries in the Visitors' Book, while HM looks on. it, contracts had already been exchanged! The house had been rightly returned to the family which had owned it for so long in days gone by.
Since then, the process of restoration and redecoration has continued under the guidance of Mr Percy, who is both an award-winning interior designer and a regional chairman of the
Historic Houses Association, and his wife Linda, who also happens to have a collection of prams which have found a new home here. In true designer fashion, not all is what it seems of course, but everything has been carefully decorated with taste and flair to resemble how the house might have appeared in its heyday. It's become a charming family home once again.
Outside, the original 18th-century Chinese-style bridge connecting the garden to the island, a forerunner to the larger one in the town, was lost but has been faithfully recreated by its owners based on old photographs. It's a lovely spot from which to admire the house from a distance and to watch swans gliding past with their cygnets and shoals of fish darting through the weeds beneath.
Beyond the bridge, the island has been cleared of its post-war refuse, wild flowers
have been encouraged and an avenue of elm trees, the first such new avenue in the county, has been planted. On a sunny day, like it was on the day of our visit, it's easy to imagine what a remarkably peaceful spot this would be for a family party or picnic.
So what's the 'Invitation to View' title of this blog all about? Well, not any old Tom, Dick or Harry can visit Island Hall. You can't just turn up and drink Lady Linda's cool elderflower cordial, eat her little triangular sandwiches and Victoria Sponge cake, or drink her "builders' tea" out of dainty porcelain cups that she found at an antiques fair. Nor can you hear tales of ancestors and restoration from the charming man of the house without an appointment. Oh no, you have to come to Island Hall on a group tour or, better still - like us, join other interested individuals on specific dates by contacting a unique organisation called
Invitation to View. Look them up - there are lots of wonderful private homes not usually open to the public that you can visit, have a fascinating tour with their owners and, maybe,
The rear view of Island Hall...
...is exactly the same as the front view! partake of afternoon tea into the bargain. We're off to another one in just a few months' time - and looking forward to it very much indeed.
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Angie
non-member comment
Brilliant
What an excellent blog you certainly made the place come alive.Superb photographs.