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You are here: Education - Rose Cottage |
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About Rose Cottage |
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Garden |
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From Town Path |
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From River |
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Interior showing
the display |
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The Trust has very recently purchased Rose Cottage. The total
cost that now needs to be raised is some £310,000. Buying the
property was £249,500 and an estimate for the cost of restoration and extension is likely to be a further £60,000.
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The charming old listed building was built about 1840. It is beside
the River Nadder, just above Harnham Mill and at the end of the
Town Path that bisects our meadows. It is, literally, a bridgehead
to them. A large part of the meadows is watered from the river
through two large hatches and along a wide 'main carriage'
(man made irrigation channel) all actually in the cottage garden. |
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The Trust has developed Rose Cottage as its Centre, on the meadows, to provide education and general public information about floated bedwork irrigation systems, both locally and more widely. We welcome visitors from schools, colleges, universities and community groups, including volunteers. There is a downstairs area with displays where small groups can meet, or have formal presentations about the history, operation and conservation of watermeadows. Upstairs the Trust is developing an archive that relates to Harnham and other watermeadow systems. This includes maps, diagrams, photographs (in hard and electronic format) copies of key references and books relating to landscape, agricultural and environmental science. This resource is available by appointment. We furthermore seek contact with groups that are presently seeking to conserve, restore and manage watermeadow systems elsewhere. |
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Fund raising is under way. Contributions (certified as eligible for
Gift Aid tax status if applicable) will be gratefully received and
should be made payable to 'Rose Cottage Appeal'. Please send to: |
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Harnham Water Meadows Trust, Caprice Cottage, Middle Winterslow, Salisbury, SP3 1QJ |
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Development of Rose Cottage (started Septmber 2005) |
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Before and After |
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During
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The History of Rose Cottage |
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The Trust's land is remnant of the 'agrarian powerhouse of the
water-meadows' (Salisbury, the changing city Purvis 2003), the
irrigated (or 'floated') systems prevalent throughout the Wessex
chalklands in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. The
irrigation was fundamental to the 'early bite' of grass that sustained
enormous flocks of Wiltshire Horn sheep, their manure sustaining the
arable land, the grain harvest and the agricultural wealth of the
area. We are fortunate that, on its 'island' our 88 acres have been
protected, and survive, effectively inside the city of Salisbury. |
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In 1931 when Fisherton Mill and its estate was sold, Rose Cottage
fetched £250 and was described as:
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'Brick, built and tiled, and contains 2 BEDROOMS, KITCHEN and
range, Pantry and Washhouse and E.C. and water supply from stand
pipe in Lot 6 (Island Cottage, dated somewhat earlier and shown on
the Inclosure Map of 1787)'. |
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The cottage is later recorded by the Royal Commission on Historic
Monuments in its Salisbury volume, not named, but as Building 590.
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'Cottage of two stories with brick walls, partly tile-hung, and with a
tiled roof, was built c1840. The S.W. front is symmetrical and of
two bays with a central doorway'. |
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Rose Cottage was remote from the then tiny hamlet of West Harnham
on the very edge of the valley floor. The original purpose was almost
certainly to house the Drowner, his job was to operate and maintain
the irrigation system. Until her death in 2004 Miss Jane Foster had
lived in Rose Cottage for over fifty years and her recollections have
been published by the Friends in their Newsletter 23 (Spring 2003) - click here to view pdf copy of this article. |
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It is fitting that the cottage will now house The Trust Bailiff, a
twenty first century successor to the Drowner of earlier times. |
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