Wispers

Wispers

Midhurst

Wispers is a large estate within the South Downs National Park,  comprising a late 19th-century Grade II Listed country house, a walled garden, former garage block, cottages, workshop and former classroom blocks. The buildings have most recently been used as a residential school but are now in extreme dilapidation. The wider site contains an area of Ancient Woodland know as The Leith to the west, and also sports facilities used by the school.

The proposals seek to remove the dilapidated 1960s school additions and return the listed house and its grand gardens to glory. Modern dwellings will be inserted into the revived site with reference to the site’s farmstead origins and with respect to the grand landscape that surrounds it.

Analysis of historical landscape plans has informed the identification of key character areas within the estate; Wispers Approach, The Paddock, The Potting Shed and Woodland Garden. Within each character area new dwellings have been designed to enhance the existing situation and reference the historical architecture and landscape.

The historic landscape is to be restored. Unplanned trees to be removed, to show more of the existing original house. Formal lawns and terraces are to be retained, carefully improved and lined with meadow grass swards which link back to the parkland. Historic paths are to be restored leading out of the ornamental woodland garden.

Re-establishing the principal approach to ensure the experience of the heritage asset of the original house will be greatly enhanced. Opening up key views allows the topographic siting of the asset to be appreciated and understood.

The removal of the more harmful aspects of 1960s additions and restoration of the original ornamental woodland garden will have dramatic improvement, with a new sculpture proposed to terminate the vista.

The original house at Wispers dates to the mid 1870s, prior to which there was a farmstead on the site. The land was acquired by stockbrocker, Alexander Scrimgeour, in 1874 in order to build a house and country estate. The house was designed by Richard Norman Shaw 1831-1912 and erected on a dramatic location overlooking the South Downs and named Wispers, after the nearby copse.

Shaw is mainly noted for his domestic and commercial work and considered to be one of the most influential architects of his generation, and a pioneer of what has sometimes been called the vernacular revival.