Looking at the Past: William Ravenscroft

Local historian, Barry Jolly of Milford on Sea Historical Record Society published an article on 'William Ravenscroft: Architect' in the Hampshire Chronicle which casts a light on some historic village architecture.

During his practice in Milford on Sea, William Ravenscroft was involved with 400 or more projects including alterations and internal works, war memorials and other public buildings. Between 1898 and 1928, he designed some 120 houses in Milford on Sea.

Little by little, Milford-on-Sea developed. That it did so was essentially down to one man, an architect, William Ravenscroft.

Ravenscroft was born in humble circumstances on 21 March 1848 at 48 Minster Street, Reading.

When he was 16, Ravenscroft was articled to a local architect, working later in London, and established his own practice in Reading in 1875. His work in Reading was prodigious. Clearly, he was prospering. In 1875, Ravenscroft married Elizabeth Rose, by whom he had four children: three boys and a daughter.

He may, though, have been working too hard, for in 1898, shortly after the death of his mother and on medical advice, he travelled to Milford on Sea, providentially perhaps, to his own, and the village’s, mutual benefit.

Whether or not he had been working too hard in Reading, Ravenscroft great work in Milford on Sea can be dated from the time of his holiday in 1898. During increasingly frequent visits to Milford, he lived in Seacroft, the first house in the village he designed, close to the sea. On settling permanently in the village in 1908, it was to another house of his own design, Briantcroft, named after his mother (née Briant). This residence, still standing in Barnes Lane, has its spacious principal rooms looking over an extended garden towards the sea.

During his practice in Milford on Sea, he was involved with 400 or more projects including alterations and internal works, war memorials and other public buildings.

Ravenscroft’s contribution to the village cannot be over-stated. Between 1898 and 1928, he designed some 120 houses out of a total of about 210 new builds, and the New Milton Advertiser asserted that, ‘it was due to him almost entirely that Milford, in spite of its rapid growth, has retained its old world charm and character.’

Other work in the village included the Church Hall in Sea Road, the Women’s Institute Hall, the Keyhaven War Memorial, and extensions to Newlands (the largest property in Milford, once the home of Admiral Cornwallis). Further work in nearby Lymington, including the Masonic Hall, reflected another of his activities as a practising freemason. Over his lifetime, he won several competitions including one from RIBA and the Local Government Board in his seventieth year.

He was honorary architect for thirty years for All Saints’ Church, providing designs for the Choir Vestry, the Children’s Corner (a gift from his future wife, Alice), and the conversion of the Lady Chapel into the War Memorial Chapel. In 1933, a century after its demolition, he recreated the lay-out of Hordle Old Church.

This last indicates an interest in history, especially church history, and he was one of six founder members and first secretary of what was then called Milford-on-Sea Record Society. It is perhaps no accident that the society was founded in 1909, the year after his move to Milford on Sea. It was (as he explained in the Society’s first Occasional Magazine, ‘of a limited number of members, formed for the purposes of research and record in relation to matters of local interest, both ancient and modern.’

The society was indeed of limited numbers, being very much a club for the more affluent residents of the village, and with a committee from which ladies were excluded.

Ravenscroft’s articles, being mostly on the church and religious themes, were those of a man who was a church warden for seven years and architectural adviser to the Winchester Diocesan Advisory Committee. Their importance - and his own continuing interest - is reflected in his 1911 work on Milford church, running, uniquely, to a second edition in 1936. His wide-ranging interests extended not only to Hordle old church (the ruins of which now lie in Milford parish), but to mediaeval religious history, and to a religious prisoner in Hurst Castle (where Charles I was held prior to his execution), who died in his cell in 1729 after thirty years of incarceration.

His history of freemasonry traced the movement back, according to one obituary, to the builders of Solomon’s Temples through the mediaeval guilds of Swiss lake dwellers.

Ravenscroft, bedridden and unable to see to read or write, passed away on 2 November 1943. He would doubtless be proud to know that Ravenscroft-designed houses are much sought after today, and that Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society is currently digitising its Occasional Magazines, including all his articles, for the benefit of future generations.

To read the full Hampshire Chronicle article by Barry Jolly, please click here.