The first record of Shanklin Manor was all the way back in the Doomsday Book of 1086, where it was noted as being owned by Gosselin Fitz-Azor, son of Azor. Before then, the island was owned by the crown and then the earldom of Wessex under the House of Godwin before returning to the crown under Harold II. After the battle of Hastings, it was gifted by William the Conquer to William Fitz Osbern, who passed it to Gosselin Fitz-Azor. Livol also held a hide. Gosselin’s daughter married Hugh de Lisle (originally the de Insula family (Latin for “of the island”) and later the Dennys family) in 1100 and the manor remained in the de Lisle family for over 600 years.
In 1710, it was taken over by John Popham, MP for Winchester and descendant of Lord Chief Justice Popham, who presided over the trials of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Gunpowder Plot perpetrators, whose new wife, Grace Broad Alchorne, was co-heiress to the de Lisle and Dennys family, having inherited from her father in 1705. They settled in Shanklin in 1716. They had a son, John and a daughter, Elizabeth, who died aged 13 in 1729. Grace died in 1735 and John remarried to Elizabeth Redstone, having George, who died at 5 months in 1738, Thomas, who died at 10 months in 1742, and Elizabeth. John and his wife Elizabeth both died in 1754 with the estate passing to John’s son John but let to tenant farmers. A number of tenants farmers farmed the land until 1880s, most notably the Jolliffe family. Many of the local residents worked on the land.
John married Sarah Shapleigh and their son was another John – rather a popular name in the family at this time! He inherited the estate in 1762 after his father’s death at the age of 4 years old, so Sarah, who lived until 1803, is likely to have run it. The third John, a captain in the Isle of Wight Militia, married Mary Perry and had three children, Mary, John and Sarah. After he died in 1816 with no male heir, as his son, the fourth John, died aged 21 in 1811 whilst studying at New College, Oxford, it passed to John’s oldest and also only surviving daughter Mary, who was married to Reverend Richard Walton White. They had a son, Francis, and three daughters, Grace, Catherine and Mary. Their son Francis White Popham then took over the house and become lord of the manor in 1856 after his mother’s death, having assumed the Popham name in 1852 in accordance with his grandfather John’s will. Having decided to move the family back to the manor in the 1880s, he performed extensive rebuilding and renovations in 1883 and 1884, adding the two wings to the side of the existing main building, a single storey extension that was an indoor pool during the hotel’s occupation and also the entrance porch, all of which remain today. As lord of the manor, he exerted control over the development of Shanklin and started to grant leases for development of villas in the 1860s, which were required to be single or semi detached with gardens, many of which can still be seen around Shanklin. Development quickened after the arrival of the railway in 1864, with this new ease of access and Queen Victoria’s association with the island increasing its popularity.
Francis died in 1894 and the manor was passed to his wife, Margaret Emma Hubbersty, who lived at the manor until her death in 1929. With Francis not having any children, the manor was then passed to the family of Francis’ sister, Mary Popham White. She married Colonel John Cameron Macpherson and later adopted the Popham-Macpherson surname. With Mary having died in 1899 and also her son Captain Duncan dying in 1920, the estate passed to Mary’s grandson and Francis’ great nephew Francis Cameron, the 25th chief of clan Macpherson, on her death.
Memorials to many of the Popham and also the Hill family, who are descendants from the marriage of John Popham’s daughter Elizabeth and William Hill, can be found in St Blasius church, previously St John, which was the manor’s church originally and built by Geoffrey de Lisle in the twelfth century, and the lychgate was built in 1894 and dedicated to Francis. The family still own many buildings and land in Shanklin, including Shanklin Chine, through Anne Springman MBE, Francis Cameron’s daughter who took on the Shanklin estate after his death in 1966.
In July 1931, the manor and immediate surrounding land was put up for sale and sold to the district council. Much of the land then found new uses, with the Big Meade park being formed and also tennis courts, which are now Shanklin Cricket Club, being established. The manor itself was put up for sale in 1932 and sold in 1935 to the Workers’ Travel Association, which was a collaboration between the Labour party, trade unions and co-operative movement, who ran the manor as a guest house. Initially set up on a not for profit basis to offer affordable holidays abroad, they expanded into UK holidays during the 1930s and 1940s, purchasing historic houses like Shanklin Manor to operate as holiday centres. You can travel back in time to see the guest house in action during 1937 in a film called Homeland Holidays, produced to promote WTA, on the BFI website (skip to 3:46). The grounds included an indoor and outdoor pool, tennis court and putting course.
It was then sold 1979 to the McLinden family to become Shanklin Manor House Hotel. The building was extended again with a games room added in front of the indoor pool extension and a conservatory added to the dining room. In 1988, a plan to convert the hotel to a nursing home was approved but never implemented. Further development saw the site of Quality Street become Shanklin Manor Mews in 1995, which were available as either rooms or holiday cottages before later being rented residentially. The hotel continued until it underwent its extensive refurbishment and restoration to form the current apartments. In addition to the indoor pool being converted to an apartment, the outdoor facilities were replace with the outdoor pool and putting course laid to lawn and the tennis court taken over by the local badgers and now a private nature reserve.
The summerhouse found in the grounds was used as a table tennis room and deck chair store during the hotel era and additional accommodation under the WTA, as well as rumoured to have been a court house and also a meeting place for local Jacobite supporters, with the Popham family noted Jacobites. There are stories that it is haunted by a murdered revenue officer! Whilst modified over the years, it is expected to date back to the 17th century and possibly constructed by Sir Edward Dennys, deputy governor of the island and a member of the de Lisle family, who, along with his father Thomas, is likely to have rebuilt the manor on the site of the medieval manor. It was given a grade II listing for its special historic interest in 14th March 1949 alongside the remains of the brick and stone walled garden.
Alongside the walled garden, which originally was a kitchen garden with greenhouse but later laid with lawn, flowerbeds and rose walk, likely during the 1880s refurbishments, and developed by the WTA on one side to form Quality Street, there was a replacement kitchen garden built to the west in what is now the Westhill park, as featured in the BFI video, in around 1880. This garden included a new greenhouse, the remains of which can still be found in this area, which has now become a woodland, potentially to provide wood for the house given the density and variety of trees, and featured in this video. The manor also had a barn as part of the farm buildings previously in place, found along the side of Manor Road and now within the grounds of The Coach House, also part of the manor and converted to residential use. The barn was used as a function room and live music venue for many years before being converted to a tea room in the early 1980s before being storm damaged in the great storm of 1987 and converted back for private functions as part of the restoration in 2006. Manor Lodge can also be found on Manor Road, another former building now residential and at the end of what would have been the entrance to the manor until the late 1800s when the current road came into use.
Over the years, there have been a number of noteworthy visitors to the manor. In the late 1640s, whilst imprisoned at Carisbrooke Castle, it is said that King Charles I would visit the manor and St Blasius church, taking communion in the porch of the church. In 1772, the radical journalist and politician John Wilkes, an MP on and off between 1757 and 1790 as well as serving terms as High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, Sheriff of London and Lord Mayor of London, is believe to have stayed as a guest of the Jolliffe family at Shanklin Manor, a couple of years after his involvement with the Massacre of St George’s Fields. Back in the 1820s, physicist Captain Henry Kater used the summerhouse as part of his research, using his Kater’s pendulum to determine the strength of gravity. You’ll spot a plaque at on the summerhouse honouring this.
The poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins visited in 1863 and as well as completing a number of poems and other drawings, he drew the manor, which you can see here courtesy of its current home, Boston College, who kindly provided a scan of the original sketch.
Given the connection to the Labour party from 1935, there were a number of visits including Aneurin “Nye” Bevan acting as Father Christmas in 1943 for the troops and Clement Attlee’s cabinet visiting in 1949 to discuss election strategy, with the visit known as the Hush Hush Weekend and filmed by British Pathe showcasing much of Shanklin Manor that still remains today. Photos and newspaper front covers from the visit are available here.
The history of Shanklin Manor is always a work in progress, so if you have any further information, do get in touch.
The former dining room
History compiled with own research as well as contributions from British History, Boston College, British Pathe, St Blasius Church, Island Life, Wootton Bridge Historical, Historic England, The History of Parliament, Isle of Wight Family History Society, Shanklin Chine, Hampshire Field Club & Archaeological Society, Shanklin & District History Society, Isle of Wight Council, Visit Shanklin, St Blasius Church, Isle of Wight Garden Trust, various genealogy websites and more.