Occasional Magazine N.S. Vol.1 No.2 (August 1982)
Origins of the Gothic Architecture at Newlands Manor by Brian Trehearne. Eighteenth century Milford was a small, unimportant village accessible only by deplorable roads and with a mainly static population. A small town like Lymington lived by its markets but Milford had such craftsmen as smiths and carpenters to make its own goods. The reason for a remarkable local event becomes clearer when considered against this background. It was Newlands Manor which, after a fire in 1800, had rebuilding in the very latest of styles, the Gothic, and not the expected Georgian seen in Milford House built in the early 1700s. Wealthier people from the country were quite used to moving about, spending time in places like Southampton and Bath, and they were bringers of new ideas and fashions. The 18th century was one of great change. It saw rising prosperity from overseas trading; classical scholarship and the Grand Tour were normal for the upper classes; and literature and the theatre flourished. Large private houses were being built and had to boast their own libraries. Medieval antiquarianism began to be pursued mid-century in art and led to a taste for the Gothic in architecture as well. The style became highly fashionable when the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars turned people away from foreign culture underpinned by classical studies. So it can be understood why Newlands Manor had its new wing in Gothic after the fire in 1800.
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