Historic Jersey buildings
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Property name
Eden Grove
Location
Rue des Bessieres [1]
Type of property
Farmstead with buildings covering an extended period
Valuations
The property's barn was sold for £250,000 in 2011
Families associated with the property
- De Ste Croix
- Le Riche: In 1901 farmer Philip Le Riche (1825- ) and his wife Esther, nee De Ste Croix (1835- ) were living here with their sons John (1877- ) and Philip (1879- ), both working on the farm
Datestones
- PDSX 1688 - for Pierre de Ste Croix, possibly father or grandfather of the Pierre on the next stone
- PDSC 1743 - probably for Pierre de Ste Croix and Elizabeth Mahaut, who married in St Lawrence in January 1744 (1743 according to the old calendar) [2]
Historic Environment Record entry
Listed building
Farmstead comprising notable example of 1823 house with range of early-mid 19th century outbuildings set around yards to the north and west. An earlier 17th century house is incorporated within the outbuildings.
Also has two 17th century datestones; one dated 1683 and the other 1688. Shown on the Richmond Map of 1795.
The house is a notable example of a late Georgian Jersey farmhouse. The frontage is a traditional five-bay, two-storey with attic. The façade is rendered in imitation ashlar with finely dressed granite quoins and window surrounds, and additional decorative bands of grey stone at ground floor and first floor level.
There is a pair of 1820s ashlar granite chimneystacks. The gable walls are of rubble granite, with a 1823 datestone on the west gable. The front door dates to the 1820s and has a central vertical moulding and six panels - each combining fielded panels with a reeded border. The single-storey rendered porch, with its original round-headed windows separated by pilasters, was likely added at a later date.
Other later Victorian additions include ornamental cement sills to the windows, and crested tiles and bargeboarded dormers to the slate roof. There is an 1820s six-panel back door which is accessed via a short flight of granite steps with cast iron decorative balusters. Photographs from the early 1990s show that the staircase must have been reinstated in recent years.
The farmstead retains its 19th century layout with the majority of the outbuildings retaining an external historic character. On the south side of the farmstead is a formal gateway with curving granite walls, decorative iron railings and a pair of granite pillars with large acorn finials, which leads to a front garden with long driveway terminating at the 1823 farmhouse.
Adjoining to the west of the 1823 farmhouse is a series of outbuildings around a central yard. The earliest of these buildings is the original 18th century house that is shown on the Richmond map of 1795. There is an inscribed datestone on the facade. In line to the west of the 1823 farmhouse is a cottage which was used as a schoolroom in the 1840s.
On the north side of the farmstead is another set of outbuildings. Most notable is a two-storey 19th century stable/store. It has a tall elliptical brick arch and louvred cupola with weather vane. The interior is plain. To the east is the former pigsty / store shed which has undergone various alterations culminating in conversion to a two-storey house in 2005.
Elements of the original farm building are visible - such as the feeding chutes - but the structure has been significantly remodelled. Interior interest is restricted to the main house only. Sub-divided into flats but retains a generously sized stair hall and high quality joinery work from the 1820s. Mahogany staircase which has slender turned balusters, a rounded handrail with swan-neck curve at each change of level, open steps with risers decorated with mahogany appliqué, and a ground floor newel terminating in a whorl with inserted disc; the internal doors leading off the stair hall which are 6-panelled with reeded borders within elaborately moulded architraves; and the panelled lining and architrave to the windows.
School
The 1841 census records that there was a school located at Eden Grove (the cottage being the former schoolroom) with 24 scholars on site, including 15 boarders from outside Jersey. It is described in the almanac as a 'Classical, Mathematical and Commercial Boarding School'.
Old Jersey Houses
Not included, despite the 17th century origins
Notes and references
- ↑ Not Rue des Bessie as shown in the HER entry
- ↑ If this stone does, indeed, record the couple's marriage, that is very unusual for Jersey datestones. It may, however, be a coincidence and record work being completed before they took up occupancy
