Many will recognise Lugley House as the recent Island home of Sovereign Housing Association and, more significantly, some may also know its connection with Island solicitors, Roach Pittis.

But for such a significant building, Lugley House, has not yet revealed its full life story to us. However, we are trying to piece together a coherent course of at least some of its journey through time. We do know though that it had many occupants and was used by a variety of business sectors, as well as providing a family home. Sometimes simultaneously. We are still digging for clues and it’s gradually being pieced together with the help of many people, including some who have worked at Lugley House at some point (or have a connection with it) along with the Archive and Records Office in Newport.

Myths and legends

Like all grand dames, this mansion house holds secrets – but are they true, or just folklore?

What we all know as Lugley Street car park was once the glorious and established garden that extended along the back and sides of the house. It contained stables and yard, an extensive vegetable garden, an orchard – and an ice house! The ice house is connected to the main house through a tunnel and steps in the basement.

Rumour has it that there is also a smugglers’ tunnel leading from Lugley House to the Castle Inn. We haven’t found it yet – but our curiosity is definitely piqued!

Local legend also tells us that Lugley House has a resident ghost, known as Albert George (no one knows why), and that he plays the organ. He was heard playing one night by an ex-policeman who was employed by the finance company, Medens. According to the then office manager at Medens, ‘staff would sometimes hear footsteps and the sound of someone moving about upstairs when the place was empty. Some staff refused to go upstairs alone and insisted the attics were haunted’ – and Albert George was apparently often blamed when things moved or vanished.

With its deep, brick-lined cellars and their dark passageways – that may or may not lead to a pub – Lugley House is definitely ripe for local legend!

A house through time

Records for this section of Lugley Street appear to date back to 1551 when a Mr Walter Barrowby paid rent of 12^d to the town of Newport for the rack ground (garden and cottage), which he named Goldhill. At this time, the land next to Goldhill was owned by a Mr John Fleming. It was on these plots that Lugley House would be built.

As you would hope, for a property of this size, Lugley House has a history that is something of a rollcall of significant Island names. Originally completed in the late 1700s by a Thomas Dickonson of Newport, on his death the family home passed to his son-in-law, John Delgarno.

John Delgarno held various positions in public life: captain of the Island militia (in 1798), county magistrate, mayor of Newport, and captain of Yarmouth Castle. He also entered the House of Commons as MP for Newport (also representing Yarmouth at one point).

During Delgarno’s ownership, his son-in-law, George Denecke, a GP, opened part of the house as a surgery, in 1822. We also know that in 1822 John Delgarno’s daughters (one the wife of George Denecke (doctor) the other the wife of Sir Leonard Thomas Worsley Holmes (baronet)) agreed to convey the house, gardens and outbuildings to William Yelf of Newport (gentleman).

In March 1823 Robert Clarke, Thomas Sewell and William Yelf, as John Delgarno’s trustees, conveyed most of the property covering the majority of the north side of Lugley Street across to Crocker Street, to Robey Eldridge of Newport, timber merchant.

In 1830, Thomas Way Eldridge, Robey and James Eldridge leased to William Mortimer of Newport, timber merchant, a timber yard with counting house, store house, stable, saw house, sheds and other buildings in Lugley Street for 14 years. However, it seems in February 1838 they sold the timber yard along with Lugley House, and part of the eastern portion of the plot in Crocker Street, to Edward Way of Newport, merchant. In June 1864, Edward Way mortgaged Lugley House to an individual called Bendal Littlehales and others.

Edward Way died at Lugley House in 1866. In 1868 Edward Way’s sons sold Lugley House and garden to James Alfred Pittis of Newport, solicitor.

James Alfred Pittis was the uncle of Richard Roach Pittis, also a solicitor. In 1848, Richard Roach Pittis’s father, Richard Pittis, had purchased the site of the current offices of Roach Pittis at 64 Lugley Street. On the death of his parents, Richard Roach Pittis bought Lugley House and lived there until his death in 1909. His successor in the firm, Alexander Young James, lived at Lugley House with his family until, on joining the Great War, he was killed at Gallipoli in 1915. It’s not clear at this stage whether he owned or rented the house.

During WW2, Lugley House was leased to the Ministry of Agriculture and at some point after, the house was sold to the Christian Science organisation, who we believe might have added the main rear extension and the curious round section with the wavy tiled roof – possibly for use as a projection room. The building on the right of the main house (as you face it from Lugley Street), that could have originally been built as a stable block, was a doctor’s surgery at one point (in the 1930s/40s). At a different time, this section was also the offices of solicitors Lamport, Bassitt and Hiscock.

We also know that financial firm, Medens, bought the house and subsequently let part of it to Medina Borough Council (which became the Isle of Wight Council), in 1983. Sovereign Housing Association was the last occupant, leaving Lugley House in March 2020 when we went into lockdown.

The rest will be our history.

For their help in restoring this magnificent house to its former glory, we would like to thank:

Geoff Dutch – Project Manager and General Building Works

Neil Guile – Painting and Decorating

Dave Pike – Painting and Decorating

Danny and Chloe Seager of Daniel Seager Decorating – Painting and Decorating

Dean Ball of Dean Ball Electrical – Electrical Works

Andy Harvey of Daren Phillips Ltd – Plumbing Works

Dave Barnett of IT-Support – IT Requirements

Graeme M-Petty of GTek – Networking Requirements

Justin Steele of Datatel Networks – Telecommunications

Mark Lee of Lifeline – Intruder and Fire Alarm Systems

Martin Dyer of Carpets Direct – Flooring and Window Blinds

David Sparkes of Solent Beds and Furniture – Office Furniture

Jon James – Property Clearance

Mick Butler – Property Clearance

Kev Foss of Cheap Skips – Property Clearance

Joe Van-Engel of JVE Contract Cleaning – Cleaning

Jim Edmondson – Gardening

For their help in historical research, we would like to thank:

Archives and Records Office, Newport

Tony Gale (ret’d solicitor, Roach Pittis)

Helen Bailey (Baileycs Ltd)