Osborne, Isle of Wight, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The manor of Osborne and that part of the manor of Barton which together form the present Osborne estate, date back to the 13th century, Barton Manor being owned from 1439 until the mid-19th century by Winchester College. Osborne passed through a number of hands; in 1630 it was bought by Eustace Mann who probably built the house which, on the marriage of his granddaughter Elizabeth to Robert Blachford (Victoria County History 1912), passed with the estate to her husband's family. In 1755, a descendant, Robert Pope Blachford, inherited a fortune and between the 1770s and 1789, carried out numerous improvements. A new house was begun in 1779 and the former one demolished, stables and the present kitchen garden were built, pleasure grounds laid out west of the House, and a park created on the east side (Phibbs et al 1983). The park was extended between 1810 and 1835 before the estate was first leased out and then put on the market by Lady Isabel Blachford. It was purchased, in 1845, along with Barton Manor to serve as the Home Farm, by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a private residence for their growing family. The House was rebuilt and the present stables added, the system of drives and paths was laid out, and the park and gardens landscaped with extensive ornamental and woodland plantings. After Prince Albert's death in 1861, the Queen continued to stay at Osborne until her own death in 1901, following which, in 1902, Edward VII gave Osborne to the nation. The majority was vested in the Crown and administered by the Crown Estate Commissioners, while the House and immediate grounds and gardens were placed under the management of the Commissioner of Woods, later to become Secretary of State for the Environment. The Main and Household wings were converted into a convalescent home for officers and a small part of the estate, including the Swiss Cottage area and the terrace, was opened to the public. The Victorian stables and an adjacent part of the park were occupied by the Royal Naval College between 1903 and 1921, while the present golf course was licensed and laid out in 1904. In 1936 the eastern end of the estate, which contains the main woodlands, was leased by the Forestry Commission and from then through to the 1950s was replanted with large-scale commercial tree crops. Parts of the estate including Barton Manor and Norris Wood were sold off in the 1920s but the remainder of the estate continued substantially unchanged from 1901. In 1983, English Heritage assumed management of Osborne House, the gardens and grounds and, by the 1990s, the parkland and the woodlands except for Barton and Pier Wood which remain (1999) in private ownership. Barton Manor was sold again privately in the late 1980s while the Golf Club renewed its lease for a further thirty years in 1989.