Nunwell House
Historic House
Nunwell House is a privately owned historic house set within extensive gardens and parkland on a gentle hillside above the town of Brading in the eastern part of the Isle of Wight. The house has been home to the Oglander family for nearly nine hundred years, and the combination of Jacobean, Georgian and Victorian architecture, family portraits, Civil War connections and beautifully maintained gardens makes it one of the island's most distinguished, if less well-known, heritage properties.
The Oglander family's association with Nunwell dates from the twelfth century, and the family has held the estate in unbroken succession for over thirty-five generations. This continuity is exceptional even by the standards of English country houses, and the house itself bears the marks of each generation's alterations and additions. The oldest surviving fabric dates from the Jacobean period, with a substantial wing added in the early seventeenth century. The Georgian front, with its symmetrical facade and sash windows, was built in the eighteenth century, and further modifications were made in the Victorian period. The result is a house that reads as a layered history of English domestic architecture.
The most famous member of the Oglander family was Sir John Oglander, who lived at Nunwell during the turbulent years of the English Civil War and left behind a remarkable set of notebooks and diaries. Sir John was a Royalist and served as Deputy Governor of the Isle of Wight. His diaries, now held at the Isle of Wight Record Office, provide one of the most detailed and personal accounts of life during the Civil War from the Royalist perspective. He recorded the island's divided loyalties, the practical difficulties of maintaining order during wartime, and his own encounters with King Charles I during the king's imprisonment at nearby Carisbrooke Castle.
Charles I is believed to have visited Nunwell during the early, less restrictive phase of his captivity on the island, when he was allowed a degree of movement. A room in the house is traditionally associated with the king's visits, though the evidence is circumstantial rather than documentary. The connection between Nunwell and the imprisoned king is nonetheless an important part of the house's story and the Oglander family's history.
The interior of the house contains family portraits spanning several centuries, period furniture, and collections that reflect the tastes and interests of successive generations. The rooms open to visitors include the Jacobean wing with its oak panelling and heavy beams, the Georgian drawing rooms with their more refined proportions and plasterwork, and a military museum containing weapons, uniforms and other items from the family's long tradition of military service. The Oglanders have served in conflicts from the Crusades to the World Wars, and the collection provides a personal perspective on military history.
The gardens at Nunwell are among the finest on the island. They include formal terraces, a walled garden, specimen trees, a rose garden and extensive lawns with views across the surrounding countryside to the Solent and the Hampshire coast. The walled garden has been restored in recent years and produces fruit, vegetables and cut flowers. The gardens are particularly attractive in spring and early summer, when the herbaceous borders are at their best and the mature trees are in full leaf.
The parkland beyond the formal gardens extends to several hundred acres and includes woodland walks, open grassland and views of Brading Down. The estate has been farmed continuously throughout its history, and the relationship between the house, its gardens and the working agricultural landscape that surrounds them gives Nunwell a sense of rootedness and continuity that is increasingly rare in modern England.
Nunwell House opens to the public on selected days during the summer months, typically Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons from June to September. Opening is limited because the house remains a private family residence, and this is part of its charm. Visitors experience a house that is lived in rather than curated, where the furniture has not been roped off and the rooms retain the character of a family home rather than a museum. For anyone interested in English country house history, the English Civil War, or the story of an island family across nearly a millennium, Nunwell is a quietly exceptional place.