The Main House
It appears that demolition of the main house started immediately. On July 26th 1927, the day after the property passed to Thomas Oakley, the contractors began to take off the roof, no doubt because of the value of the lead. According to Sister Margaret Mary, the roof was in very good condition as the French Nuns had spent a considerable sum on it quite a short time before they left. Eventually, the greater part of the house was demolished (the contractors presumably removing anything of value), leaving only the front wall standing.
The back of St. Monica’s Priory October 6th 1928
In the above photograph the back portion of the main house has been pulled down, but the chapel is still standing (the wall of the chapel was separate from the wall of the main house.) The Chancel and one of the transepts of the Church of the Immaculate Conception can be seen. The lowest part of the main house nearest the chapel was the Sacristy.
Saloon from the 1740s at Spettisbury House, Dorset
Another room from Spettisbury House, installed in the apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Samuels in Park Avenue, New York, was intended for sale at Sotheby’s in 1981 but the sale was cancelled as Imelda Marcos bought the lot pre-sale!
By the time the demolition contractors had finished their work all that remained of St. Monica’s Priory were the Chapel, the Priest’s House (now the Village Hall), the School House and the Kitchens (now the houses known as St. Monica’s Priory) and what was described by Dorothy Gardiner in 1937 as “the façade of Sir John Hody’s mansion, gaunt and windowless, a mere screen serving no obvious purpose.” It is not known when this façade was eventually removed.
His demolition work done, Thomas Oakley then proceeded to sell what was left of the estate. The Priest’s House was sold to Ernest Boughton, the School House & Kitchens were sold to Thomas Rowland, a 90ft strip of land north of the Priest’s House including the Chapel was sold to a group of Spetisbury villagers, the Rev. Mr. Drury, Maurice Newton Tory, Hilda Parke and Louis Strange. The remainder of the estate was sold to Cecil A Balcomb.
Cecil Augustus Balcomb was the founder of C.A.Balcomb & Co, Estate Agents & Auctioneers at 3 Bank Buildings, Boscombe, which was in existence from at least 1920 until 1942. He was the son of Thomas Balcomb, a dental surgeon, and his wife Margaret Emily and had been born in 1885 in St. Helier, Jersey, where his father had his dental practice. When his father retired, the family came to live at Boscombe. In the 1911 census the family were living at 278 Christchurch Road, Boscombe and Cecil was a 26 year old estate agent.
Cecil Balcomb married Jessie Jones in 1919 and they had three daughters. Their main family home was at Hawkwood Road, Boscombe but between 1943 and 1956 they also owned ‘The Old Rectory’ at Pulham as well as the property at Spetisbury.
Mr. Balcomb built a bungalow at the end of the “La Grande Allée” and put a gardener/caretaker there (Between 1945 and 1958 this was Billy Hall (and his wife Bessie) who looked after the garden and orchard and sold its produce.) He also bought the thatched cottage over the wall from the cemetery and made a charming weekend cottage of it, converting the garden into a lawn (His family evacuated there at the beginning of the war.) He later bought the Chapel which he converted into a badminton court which he allowed the villagers to use, along with the tennis court in the gardens. During the war, the Americans stationed in Spetisbury also used to play volley-ball in the gardens.
Many plans were put forward for the development of the area but nothing was done until 1967 when the land was sold, the high wall fronting the road and the chapel were demolished and the 16 bungalows in what is now Priory Gardens were built. The name chosen for the development was Stour but as a result of a petition from some old girls of the school, the name was changed to Priory Gardens.
Cecil Balcomb died in 1972 aged 87 but his weekend thatched cottage remained in the family until 1976.
The back of St. Monica’s Priory October 6th 1928
In the above photograph, taken at the same time, the Priest’s House can be seen to the left of the demolished main house.
Some of the interior fittings of the house were removed and sold. An auction catalogue from New York in October 1935 mentions “some fine interior material including a handsome English 18th century elaborately carved pine and marble mantel, and the richly-carved mid-18th century pine panels and fittings from a room at St. Monica’s Priory in Spettisbury.”
Between 1920 and 1960 there was a very large movement of architectural and decorative salvages and many complete rooms, staircases, etc. were shipped across the Atlantic. The Caramoor centre for the Music and the Arts in Katonah, New York, once the private home of Walter Tower Rosen (1875-1951) lawyer, banker and musician, now contains in its reception room some Corinthian pilasters from Spetisbury House, removed when it was demolished.
The “Great Accumulator,” as he was called, William Randolph Hearst, bought literally hundreds of architectural salvages from Europe for his houses in America, including the Saloon from Spettisbury House, pictured below. It was sold in 1935 when Hearst became bankrupt for $3,600 and installed at the MCA Corporation, Madison Avenue and 57th Street, New York. Charles Roberson, the architectural salvage company, also offered three other Spettisbury rooms at the same sale.