Little Park

Little Park is a farmhouse, later house, dating from the early 18th century, located on West Street in Brading.

The building is constructed mainly of Isle of Wight coursed stone rubble interspersed with clunch and ironstone, with narrow red brick dressings. The south-west side was rendered in the 20th century. The roof is gabled and tiled, with three slate courses to the edge of the front slope. Part of the rear slope has been replaced in corrugated asbestos. There is a truncated ridge brick chimneystack at the south-east end and a further ridge brick chimneystack at the northern end of the north-eastern slope.

The plan is a two-bay end-chimneystack house with a rear outshot. It is two storeys with two windows to the south-west, sloping to one storey with a catslide roof to the rear.

The south-west or entrance front has a stringcourse, probably of brick although rendered over, and a stone plinth with two brick courses at the top. It probably also has brick end quoins under the later render. The probably enlarged window openings have 20th-century wooden casements. The central entrance has a shallow 20th-century porch flanked by rendered brick triangular buttresses, but behind this is an earlier, probably mid-19th-century, plank door. The north-west side elevation appears to have a low-level blocked window opening. The south-east elevation has brick end quoins and two window openings with red brick dressings and a further blocked opening. The north-east elevation has two boarded windows with red brick dressings and a central 19th-century ledged and braced plank door. A 19th-century brick water closet to the north-west is of lesser interest.

The ground floor has a large south-western room occupying about two-thirds of the frontage, a smaller north-western room, and the rear outshot. The front door opens directly into the south-western room, which has a large wooden fireplace with a later wooden shelf on brackets on the south-eastern wall. The ceiling is of lath and plaster. A partition wall to the north-east has a ledged door leading into the outshot, and a north-western partition wall has a 19th-century four-panelled door leading into the smaller north-western room. A wooden winder staircase is present. A first-floor plastered ceiling and wooden floor joists are visible externally through the upstairs south-western window.

Little Park appears to date from the early 18th century or possibly earlier. There is a long history of a building on this site. Little Park was originally part of the royal Manor of Whitefield, which Edward I acquired in 1293. In 1520 Oliver Oglander leased the manor from the Crown, and in 1559 the lease was in the possession of his widow, Ann Oglander. She sub-let various parts of it to sub-tenants, and Little Park was sub-let to Thomas Kendall, sexton. A survey of the Manor of Whitefield from around 1557 records: "Thomas Kendall alias Kendye holdeth of Ann Oglander, widow, as parcel of the manor of Whitefield a tenement in Brading called Little Park, late in tenure of Roger Vivien." Thomas Kendall had already sub-let Little Park to John Henton. Henton's widow remarried Edward Withers, a tanner. On 14th April 1576, Edward Withers was admitted to Park, containing 14 acres, on his own life and those of Katherine Withers, his daughter, and John Henton, his step-son. The inventory of Edward Withers' goods from 1582 shows he held tanners' goods "in the Park House." His daughter Catherine married Thomas Parsons, who on 28th September 1615 renewed the lease of Little Park on his own life and that of John and Catherine, his children.

In 1630 Sir John Oglander of Nunwell bought the lease of the manor of Whitefield from the Crown, and Little Park became part of the Oglander estate. On 1st November 1636, Parke was leased to William Newland of Brading, glover, on his own life and those of William and Thomas, his sons. On 17th April 1655, William Newland was admitted as tenant of Parke in the Borough of Brading. In 1679, Widow Newland paid Sir John Oglander a rent of six shillings and eightpence for Park. She survived until June 1704, when administration of her goods was granted to Elizabeth Newland of Brading, spinster, her only surviving child, who married in 1704 John Richards of Nettlestone in the parish of St Helen's, mariner.

At Michaelmas 1704, Little Parke was let to Charles Farthing for a rent of ten shillings. Charles Farthing renewed the lease on 26th January 1707/08, and on 14th November 1722 he mortgaged the lease to John White of Kerne. A document from 14th November 1722 records the following: "Mortgage of the farm house called Little Park, in the parish of Brading, which lease was granted by Sir William Oglander of Nunwell, Baronet on 26th January 1707/08 to said Charles Farthing of Nunwell, yeoman, for 3 lives, Charles Farthing, his brother William and William How of Brading, blacksmith and also the freehold of peaked close (5 acres) to other lands."

In 1734, the property was held by Charles Farthing, aged 55, on his own life and those of William Farthing, aged 60, and William How, aged 48. On 10th December 1741, it was leased to Susanna Farthing of Appleford, his widow, on her own life and those of William Farthing, her late husband's brother, and Mary, daughter of John Dore of Appleford, parish of Godshill.

A building in the position of the existing Little Park is shown on the 1773 Oglander Estate map when it was in the possession of James [name blank]. The property is shown with boundaries marked 5M and shows another building situated to the south-west of the house, now no longer surviving, and a pond. The map shows a small drawing of the front of the house depicting a two-storey house with four windows to each floor, a central doorcase, and two end-chimneystacks.

On 10th September 1782, it was leased as Little Parke to Thomas Midlane of Brading, yeoman. In the 1841 Census, James Hatcher, aged 70, parish clerk, Francis Hatcher, aged 25, and Mary Deacon, Independent, lived here, although much of the land had been added to New Farm.

On the 1873 Ordnance Survey Map, the property is named Little Park and has the same square footprint as the existing property. The area to the north-west of the house is shown wooded, possibly denoting an orchard. To the south-west of the pond, two small buildings are shown which have not survived. By the 1897 and 1908 Ordnance Survey sheets, only one of these small buildings survived. An external brick water closet was added in the 19th century to the north-west elevation, although it is not marked on the maps. Little Park was sold from the Oglander estate in 1960 and became derelict during the late 20th century.