Fritham Lodge

The New Forest is a special area of the English countryside and they are lucky people who have found a home and recreation in this part of Hampshire. Being near to Southampton and Portsmouth, it is natural that many navy and army servicemen have set up home here. Around 1848, just before he began his voyage on the 'Constance', Edmund bought his New Forest home - Fritham Lodge: a house with an extended history. 

The lodge is known to have been used for hunting in the forest in Charles the First's time. How much a lodge and how much a simple stockade it was we do not know. Charles II is supposed to have passed it on to one of his entourage who then sold it. From the 17th century onwards a series of owners, one being Edmund Heathcote, have lived in the house and often have left it with some modification or extension added in the style of their times. Edmund's main contribution to the fabric of the Lodge is the rear dining room and room above. We know the detail of that project because the original plan of the works, which also has detailed sets of instructions written down for the craftsmen, can be found in the Hampshire County Archives: Reference: 63M95/39. As a result, Fritham Lodge - at the beginning of the 21st century - is a delight: a grade II listed house with a wealth of features and a curious layout. The present owners, following the tradition of previous owners, have made some modest improvements which have created a very pleasant living space giving on to an attractive garden.

 
The present owners have a pencil drawing of the house as remembered by a servant in Victorian times.  This drawing, if accurate, clearly shows the state of the house after extensions on both ends of the house had been added in the 18th century. Edmund played his part in the gradual development of Fritham Lodge by adding a dining room.

Of minor additions and repairs there were plenty, since the diary has several entries about the purchase of bricks which seem to have been bought at around one and a third farthings each!

Chas Windybank, who seems to have been the local odd job man, was repairing the pigsties on the 15th of November 1869 and was paid one shilling and eightpence. The next year, 25th May 1870, Harry Hilley was paid ten shillings for cleaning the privies and two shillings for cleaning out the pond.
Quite when the various additions and improvements were made is difficult to tell, since there are few documents. Edmund's plans were first drawn up in 1872 but a spell at sea - his last commission - delayed the work. It seems clear that he took up the plan again around 1879.

The Hampshire Archives have the plan for several extensions of the house, the main part of which was a new dining room at the right hand rear of the house.  A contract was drawn up on the third of September 1879 for a William Baxter to build the dining room.  The instructions were very detailed, based on the larger plan, and the total cost was to be £150.  "The whole of the said works and alterations shall be absolutely completed on or before the Fourteenth day of December next and in case of default in that respect the said William Baxter shall forfeit and pay the sum of one pound for each and every day ...."   Let us presume that the said William Baxter moved quickly!  Edmund's wife Jessie probably had a Christmas party planned that December to display the extension of her house and would not have been amused by a delay.

Edmund also extended the size of his property by buying a piece of land and cottages from a Mr Thomas Smith in 1859.  There are letters to his solicitors about this purchase when he was at Spithead on HMS 'Doris' on April 27th 1859.  He wanted the transaction to be made quickly because he was expecting his orders to sail at any moment.  The purchase was made and the cottage figures in his diary for tithes and rents.  That land purchase was the larger part of the land attached to the house.
 

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