The Wakes, Selborne, Hampshire, England

The origin of The Wakes is a C16 hall building, its name coming from the Wakes family who probably occupied it in the C16 and C17 (Scott 1950). Gilbert White's grandfather acquired it at the beginning of the C18, probably as a dower house for his wife. From 1751, while a curate in and around Selborne and the house in the ownership of his father, Gilbert White (1720-93) began to carry out and record his experiments in landscape design and horticulture in the grounds. His brother John cut the Zig-Zag walks up the nearby Hanger in 1752 (Mabey 1986). White inherited The Wakes from his uncle in 1763 and although his interest had by now turned to natural history, he continued a practical interest in the grounds until his death in 1793. He also made a number of additions and alterations to the house. Few changes occurred during the C19, the principal ones being Professor Thomas Bell's addition of a library and conservatory and his extension of the garden westwards to Gracious Street.

The last decade of the C19 and the first half of the C20 saw further change with the addition of an upper storey by F W Cuthbert Read, and then from 1903 under the ownership of the Pears family and from 1910 under that of Colonel and Mrs Bibby, the house was extended and enlarged into the present Edwardian mansion. The Bibbys also concentrated much energy on the gardens, laying out topiary, rose and rock gardens on the Gracious Street Gardens, and herbaceous borders on Baker's Hill. In 1953, an appeal was launched to convert The Wakes into a Gilbert White Museum. A response came from Robert Washington Oates who was looking for a home for his antiquarian collection which included artefacts from the life of the explorer Lawrence Oates. The Wakes, commemorating both Gilbert White and the Oates family, opened as a museum in 1955 and is now (2000) run as a charitable trust. In 1995 the trustees began an ongoing restoration of White's landscape design in the grounds and improvements to the house. The Hanger and Selbourne Common have been owned by the National Trust since 1932 which also has a covenant over the grounds of The Wakes.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING The Wakes stands in the centre of Selborne village, on the on the west side of the B3006 (High Street), some 5km south of Alton. The 18ha site comprises c 0.5ha of ornamental gardens and 9ha of parkland with the remainder wooded. To the south-west of the house, the gardens and parkland extend some 350m on fairly level ground towards the foot of Selborne Hanger which rises precipitously to form a high wooded scarp. To the south-east of the house, the land rises more gently. The grounds are bounded to the north and north-east sides by village buildings on Gracious Street and the High Street (B3006). To the east and west, hedgerows enclose the parkland from pastureland, with a public footpath forming the western boundary. The site is surrounded by well-wooded farmland and, to the south, the wooded upper slope of the Hanger and Selborne Common.