inscribed and dated " Farm House Yard Quarr Abbey Aug 31 1829"
The Old Abbey Farmhouse is a beautiful Grade II listed property, located on the grounds of Quarr Abbey which is home to a community of Catholic Benedictine monks. The Farmhouse is adjacent to the ruins of an ancient Cistercian abbey, which was founded in 1132 by Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon and fourth Lord of the Isle of Wight. The site of this ancient abbey lies midway between Fishbourne and the village that grew up around the royal quarry at Binstead.It was from this quarry that the abbey took its name: Quarreria – Quarr. Hence its original title was: The Abbey of St Mary in the Quarries. This quarry had been in use since the Norman Conquest, providing stone for Hampshire churches and also most notably the cathedrals of Winchester and Chichester.
Quarr Abbey was a Cistercian foundation of 1131 but the remains are scanty. The farmhouse is early C19 two storey probably of old stones. Lancet windows grouped in threes below stepped gables. Ground floor three lights with stone mullions to outer bays. The centre is slightly recessed with corbelled parapet, double chamfered pointed arch to doorway. Stepped gables to side and to rear which is considerably taller, thecrown of gable raised up with cornice and pierced by lancet. Below the gable to the North, the archway, linking the farmhouse to the bam originally the cellarian, may be connected with the West front of the church. The barn represents the West range of the cloisters, and its entrance bay to the North has a group of genuine C13 lancets reset. To the East and West: remains of the North range, retaining part of the kitchen entrance and vertiges of its interior, heavily chamfered hatch between kitchen and the South end of the refectory. Of the refectory one shafted joint to the doorway and one wall shaft of what must have been blank arcading, survive. Next to the door a cupboard recess. Apart from this group little remains: to the North a section of wall and an arch with continuous chamfer, possibly part of the Abbot's lodging or a woodhouse. To the East a fragment of wall and part of a fireplace with a square head and panelled sides of the C14, a round headed North window. This was the infirmary chapel.
Richard Suter (1797–1883).
Richard Suter was born in Greenwich, Kent on 30th March 1798, to William Suter and his wife Sarah Knights. On 7th January 1825 he married Anne Ruth Burn.
English architect. As Surveyor to The Fishmongers' Company he designed the severe Presbyterian churches for Ballykelly (1825–7) and Banagher (1825) on the Company's Estate in County Londonderry, drawings of which were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1827. He was also responsible for the Model Farm (1823–4), the Lancasterian Schools (1828–30), the Company Agent's House (1830–2—now a hotel, much altered), a range of houses on the south side of the main road (1823–4), the lodge in the Presbyterian churchyard (1828), and the Dispensary (1829), all at Ballykelly, and all Classical. As Surveyor to Trinity House Corporation, he designed houses that were erected by Thomas Cubitt in 1821–3 on a site adjoining Trinity House. For The Fishmongers' Company he designed St Peter's Almshouses, Wandsworth, London (1849–51), and The Old School-House, Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk(1859), in an Elizabethan style.
On the 1841 Census Richard, an architect and lawyer, can be found living in London with his wife Ann (listed as Ruth) and their two children, Richard George and Andrew Burn. Living with them is Edward D Suter. 1851 finds the family living in Tottenham Court in London, by this time Andrew had left the home, but I am unable to trace him on the 1851 Census. In 1860 Andrew marries Amelia Damaris Harrison. Both Richard George and Andrew were to become ordained ministers, with Andrew later becoming a Bishop and emigrating to New Zealand. Sadly in 1854 Anne Ruth was to pass away. In 1861, widowed Richard, Justice of the Peace for Maidenhead, is living at Castle Hill, Maidenhead, Berkshire. In 1862 he married Elizabeth Anne Pocock. In 1871 and 1881 Richard and Elizabeth are still living in Castle Hill. Richard was to pass away on 1st March1883.
Richard Suter & Annesley Voysey, architects, had their office at number 35 Fenchurch Street, but they did not have it all to themselves as they shared the premises with W.C. Franks, a tea broker, who will get a separate post some other time. The earliest mention I found of Richard Suter in Fenchurch Street is in 1832 when he is listed at that address in a list of contributing members of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. It says that he had been a member since 1829, but that does not mean he was already at 35 Fenchurch Street in that year.(1) In fact, that seems unlikely as the Sun Fire Office records give Messrs. Short and Co., merchants, as paying the insurance premium on the premises in May 1830. The Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 give the year 1827, but I do not know on what evidence. When Suter and Voysey became partners is also uncertain, but they had known each other since at least 1825 as Suter is named as one of the executors of Voysey’s will which was dated 22 July, 1825. The address given for Suter in the will is Suffolk Street, Southwark. Voysey then lives at Conway Street, Fitzroy Square.