The history of Mottistone Gardens and Estate

1086

The Domesday Book

The existence of Mottistone Manor is recorded in the Domesday Book.

1200

The church

Brian de Insula built the church for use of his tenants. The church stood in the grounds of the manor until the 20th century when the road was diverted between it and the manor.

1425

The east wing

Robert Cheke builds the east wing over the original Saxon manor.

1567

Continued remodelling

Robert's grandson, Thomas, continues making improvements to the manor. He remodelled the face of the east wing and transformed the early Tudor house into an Elizabethan ‘L’ shape by adding the west wing. The porch is sealed with his initials and the date 1567. 

1621

Sir Robert Dillington

Mottistone is sold to Sir Robert Dillington. Upon his death his youngest son, another Robert, became the second baronet and inherited Mottistone.

1703

Mud slide

Following a storm, the back of the manor is engulfed by a mud slide and remains buried for more than 200 years.

1861

Charles Seely

The house and gardens are bought by Charles Seely and remain in the family for over 100 years.

1914

The First World War

After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, General Jack Seely was sent to the western front. Jack was accompanied by his horse named Warrior who had been bred on the Isle of Wight. It has been reported that over 8 million horses and mules died throughout the war, yet brave Warrior survived some of the worst battles of the First World War including Ypres, the Somme and Passchendaele. 

1926

Seely and Paget

General Jack Seely moves to Mottistone and commissions his architect son John, and his business partner Paul Paget, to restore the house after the landslide. Prior to restoration, the manor was inhabited by tenant farmers and the garden had been used as a farmyard.

Together, Paget and Seely also collaborated on the interior of Eltham Palace and the post-war restoration of a number of bomb-damaged buildings, such as the London Charterhouse and the church of St John, Clerkenwell. They worked on their designs in ‘The Shack’, a tiny home in miniature that today stands in the garden at Mottistone.

1956

Jacquetta Hawkes and the Longstone

On Mottistone Common stands the Longstone megalith. This large stone situated on the grassy downland has been interpreted in various ways through the centuries. It was Jacquetta Hawkes who first identified the stone as part of a Neolithic long barrow.

Jacquetta first began to excavate the Longstone in 1956, publishing her findings in the Journal ‘Antiquity’ the next year. Until that time it was not realised that the Longstone was in fact the remains of an entrance to a Neolithic long barrow.

This pioneering lady was the first woman to gain a degree in archaeology and anthropology and lived with her husband J.B. Priestly, at nearby Brook Hill House.

1960

The garden

The garden as you see it today was created by Lady Vivien Nicholson in the 1960s. She was inspired by her Sicilian upbringing to create hard landscaping and terracing in the formal area, while the orchard was refreshed with an avenue of flowering and fruiting trees.

1963

The National Trust

Mottistone Manor and the surrounding estate were left to the National Trust by John Seely (2nd Lord Mottistone) on his death in 1963. 

2014

The Victoria Cross

In September 2014, Warrior was posthumously awarded an honorary PDSA Dickin Medal, often known as the Victoria Cross for animals, for bravery during the First World War. Warrior had been involved in some of the defining moments of the First World War including one of the last cavalry charges in history at the Battle of Moreuil Wood, in March 1918.