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Summary - not yet available

Monument Type(s):

• BARN (16th century - 1501 AD to 1600 AD)
• GREAT HOUSE (17th century to 19th century - 1601 AD to 1900 AD)

Protected Status:

• Listed Building (I) 1331433: Anglesey Abbey
• Listed Building (II) 1164614: Barn to North West of Anglesey Abbey

Full description

O1, An early C17 mansion incorporating the remains of Anglesea priory. There is nothing to be seen of the church or ancillary features noted by Dickinson but the fishponds and watercourse remain. Open to the public (National Trust). Published1/2500 revised. See GP.
1. Full architectural description and history. (O2).Barn, NW of house, originally framed, has been reconstructed with a modern masonry E wall. Original features include posts, tie beams, crown posts and braces to collar purlin; perhaps C16.
2. The early C13 remains of a priory of Augustinian canons were converted into a 'L' shaped house of limestone and clunch rubble c 1600. It was extensively altered 1861 for Rev John Hailstone, Vicar of Bottisham, who may also have laid out the formal gardens round the house. It was altered more drastically by 1st Lord Fairhaven who acquired it 1926 and left it to the National Trust on his death 1966. Previous owners included the Cambridge carrier, Thomas Hobson (d 1630/1), origin of the phrase "Hobson's Choice", and Sir George Downing, 3rd Bt, founder of Downing College. The main W front of 3 bays may be fundamentally of mid C13 with fenestration of ca 1600 save for the gabled dormer windows which are an excellent C20 reconstruction of those removed in the first half of C19. The N entrance lies in the re-entrant angle of the 2 wings of the house through a reset porch of 1861. It leads into a vaulted corridor of 1926 by Sidney Parvin, to the N of which is the dining room. This has 2 octagonal piers of Purbeck marble forming 6 vaulted bays and was the undercroft of the Prior's Lodging in the early C13. The main stone staircase, N range and library were added 1937 - 1939 from designs by Parvin. In 1955 Sir Albert Richardson designed the new rather graceless picture-galleries on 2 floors approached by a bridge across the drive. The richly eclectic interiors of the main house together with the equally eclectic art collection of the American-born Lord Fairhaven produce the atmosphere of rootless cosmopolitan luxury of a Long Island mansion, which was the last thing intended by that anglophile peer. Happier are his extensive landscaped gardens and park, the last of their kind to be created, dotted with imported C18 statuary and urnage. But one cannot help feeling that his fortune might have been more valuably expended in preserving a major house than aggrandising a minor one. See RN 06866 for full list of cross references.

<1> RCHM, 1972, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire. Volume II. North-East Cambridgeshire, 74 - 80, (plan, photos, ill) (Bibliographic reference). SCB13360.

<2> Watkins, D., 1971, Burke's and Savilles Guide to Country Houses, Cambridgeshire, p. 3-4 (Bibliographic reference). SCB15643.

Sources and further reading

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