Properties

Westwood House

Brock’s Copse Road 1910

This imposing residence standing in its own grounds of about 6 acres, with north and south lodges connected to the main house by driveways together with other dwellings was built and created at the beginning of the twentieth century for Edwin C. Carnt. He was Chairman and Managing Director of J.S. White the well-known ship building company of Cowes Isle of Wight. Originally the estate had north and south lodges with driveways connecting them to the house, another dwellings.

Picture of Westwood House 1910 — Westwood House 1910

In the Heritage Centre in East Cowes there is an article concerning “Sibbicks the Builders” which reads, “ It was through his work with J.S. White’s that he was asked to build a model farmstead at Westwood House, at Wootton for Mr Carnt, Chairman of J.S. White’s”, this farmstead we now know as Westwood Farm.

Both lodges are now in private hands and from about 1935 the farm has been run by the Long family, many people in the village will remember Mr & Mrs Long and their son Bob delivering morning milk.

Over the last 100 years the house has had many owners and we name but a few;
As stated above estate was created for Edwin Carnt and his wife Annie around 1910.
Unfortunately he did not enjoy the house for long as he died in 1915, on the death of Mrs Carnt in 1927, her niece Katherine M. Mitchell and her husband Eng. Lt. Commander Rowland A.C. Mitchell inherited the estate. They lived there until the outbreak of the Second World War, when it is report that the Commander was recalled by the navy to active service and based at Scapa Flow, Scotland. The house was closed and left in the care of a caretaker, they returned to Westwood after the war and in June 1946 sold to a Mr Oswald Burden [he sold North Lodge]. After a short stay he in turn sold the house in January 1948 to a Mrs Farr and it was turned into a nursing home for the next nine years. In September 1959 Westwood became a private house again when the Maslen family bought it for £1,200.00, they at the time owned Transatlantic Plastics Ltd, Ventnor.

In October 1967 the new owner was a Miss Holt* who bought the house for £3,500.00 and bought back North Lodge. In November 1981 the house was again sold, and in 1984 gained fame as the home of Mark King of Level 42 fame. In 1995 he sold his archetypal rock-star mansion with built in studio and moved to smaller premises on the Island, taking time off to be a family man. During his stay at Westwood Mark King re-aligned the main driveway to the position it is in today; [previously it had looped passed North Lodge] the gardens were also altered.

*Note;- Prior to moving to Westwood House, Miss Joyce Annie E. Holt had lived at Barton Manor, East Cowes, she was born 10th Dec. 1910, died Aug 1998.

The Land

The origins of Westwood date back to an auction held at he Yelf’s Hotel, Union Street, Ryde at 3 0’clock to the minute on Thursday 20th July 1899. This was when the freehold of Sea-Copse-Hill Estate in the Parish of Whippingham was sold. The auctioneers were Dowsett, Knight & Co. of Lincoln Inn Fields, London and there was a total of 156 acres of land sub divided into 11 lots of between 3 and 25 acres. The estate was situated between what we now know as Lushington Hill and Brocks Copse Road.

Auctioneers description for the sale was:-
“ To Buyers of Freehold Land suitable for Dairy, Fruit, game, and Poultry Farms, Market Gardens, Rabbit Warrens, Gravel Quarries, Waterworks, Villa farms, and Building Lands.
“The lots comprising of 4 Woods, 7 Meadows, a Field containing Valuable Springs of Water, a Field containing a Valuable Gravel Quarry, and 2 Arable Fields, possession of land about Michaelmas next”

Note:- Mr Wheeler, the gamekeeper, who lives at the cottage on lot 5 [we believe this to be Belmont Cottage] will show the lots if desired.

There was a further auction of 89 acres of this land in 1900 at Yelf’s in Ryde. Three plots of 34, 32 and 23 acres were available and included the land on which Westwood House, the farm and North and South Lodges were built, and what are now Belmont Cottages. It is believed that Mr Carnt bought out these owners to build the Westwood Estate.

Sources:
Mr.B.Long
East Cowes Heritage Centre
Andy Segui
Other sources