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Ryde Sea Front offers something for most people. Transport fans can watch ferries arriving at the country's second longest pier, the cross-Solent hovercraft, rather antiquated trains traversing the eight miles to Shanklin and also the island's buses leaving from the station.

More usual holiday pursuits include a bowling green, skating and bowling rinks, canoe lake, an elegant pavilion, shops, cafes and at the eastern end, an open park with children's playground. This is Appley, where once an elegant mansion stood surrounded by a Humphrey Repton garden.

Appley Towers

This fine mock Tudor mansion was built about 1840 for Mr George Young, a Scottish corn merchant. He employed the local architect Thomas Hellyer and the design included a central tower and a clock tower over the east wing. With no great stretch of the imagination, Young named it Appley Towers. Overlooking Spithead it incorporated a park, gardens, farm, stables, a boathouse and three lodge houses for the gardeners. Mr Young and his family lived there in style, attended by eight house servants. They stayed for nearly forty years.

The History of Appley

In all probability Appley was the site of an early orchard, the name coming from the old Saxon for apple plus lea, meaning a wooded area. There had already been several houses in the neighbourhood incorporating the name and at some point the Hutt family seems to have acquired all of them. It was not surprising therefore that when Appley Towers became vacant, Sir William Hutt, formerly of Sturbridge House in Ryde, took possession.

The Hutt Family

The Hutts came from a long line of soldiers and traders steeped in the Colonial tradition. William Hutt had spent his career in the colonies. A founder member of the New Zealand Company he acquired some twenty million acres of Maori land for the company by bartering weapons and trinkets. His name survives in both the Hutt River in Australia and the suburbs of Upper and Lower Hutt in Wellington, New Zealand. Born in Ryde, William KCB ended where he had started, dying at Appley Towers in 1882.

The house passed to his brother, George, a British Indian Army Officer. George too had been born on the island and rose to the rank of Major General, having a long career in the Indian subcontinent. Like William, George had only a short tenure at Appley Towers, dying there in 1889.

In 1907 tragedy struck when a fire came close to destroying the house. It was by then in the ownership of Major General George's eldest son George William Hutt and like his father and uncle he died on the Island, being only forty-six years of age. His brother, Francis Roder Hutt was later killed in Loos, being commemorated on Ryde War Memorial.

Appley Towers' Last Days

On George William Hutt's death the property was put up for sale and purchased by 43 year-old Sir Hedworth Williamson, the 9th baronet Williamson, whose family seat was at Whitburn Hall in Durham.

A mystery surrounded his mother Lady Elizabeth Liddell, a cousin of the Alice of Alice in Wonderland fame for she apparently disappeared without trace when out riding near Marsden Rock at South Shields. Sir Hedworth senior never recovered from his loss, giving away much of his money and his racehorses to family servants. His son Sir Hedworth lived at Appley Towers until his death in 1942.

In the way of things, this elegant old house lost its appeal and during the Philistine Sixties it was pulled down to make way for redevelopment.

Relics of Appley Towers

Although the gardens were destroyed and the mansion was obliterated, several edifices still survive. Along Appley Lane one passes both Upper and Middle Lodge, quaint houses built for the gardeners at the big house while at the bottom of the lane the old boathouse, quirky in its design, is utilised by Ryde Rowing Club.

Queen Mary and Appley Tower

Right on the water's edge and at the headland stands another survivor, Appley Tower. Local legend claims that this Victorian gothic construction was erected for the amusement of Mary of Teck who married King George V. Her previous fiance, George's elder brother Albert Victor, died shortly after their engagement aged twenty-eight and Mary, perhaps unwilling to let the crown of England escape her, married George as the next heir. Finding Osborne tiresome she often escaped to Appley Towers while her husband was busy sailing. Unsurprisingly this gave rise to speculation as to her relationship with the owner.

When the house became empty the Council took possession of much of the parkland. A swathe of modern buildings filled much of the site but along the water's edge the public space of Appley Park survived and is now there for everyone's pleasure.

Sources:

Ryde Social Heritage Centre

Sir George Hutt