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According to information at the Reference Library, the Hermitage was the alleged site of “Grange of Quarr Abbey”. The Hermitage was mentioned in Domesday. A tunnel is said to have led down from the Hermitage to Stokes Bay, - perhaps for communication between the Hermitage monks and those at Quarr.

The arch in the photograph used to be at the entrance to Newport Road until it was destroyed in March 1990. There was another stone archway near the entrance to the tunnel. The mulberry tree on the site is reputedly one planted by order of Charles II, when every hamlet had to have its own supply of food for silkworms.

The building which preceded the present house was an L-shaped bungalow with 22 rooms. This previous house belonged to someone called Collins until about 1730. Then it was taken over by the Vigars – three brothers and a sister, who were Roman Catholic refugees from Holland. They were almost hermits. The brothers made their own stained glass in a little room off the end of the old barn. They also made archways, fancy ponds, grottoes, etc. In the middle of the older house was a long room which was used as a chapel. It had coloured glass doors at one end and a coloured window at the other. On the ceiling there were crowns and effigies – perhaps or monks, and in little alcoves in the wall, were little Madonnas, etc.

The last Vicgars died in about 1884 which was the year when the present house was built. The pillars at the end of the back house and the corner of the sitting room are parts of the original building, and so is the building near the pump.

When the Kentfields were in the house, there were two very big rooms and three smaller rooms downstairs. The stair-rail had been an altar rail. Upstairs there were three big bedrooms and one smaller one, a bathroom and a square landing as big as a room. The square hall downstairs was quite big (as big as an ordinary room) with French doors. This was later used as a dining room.

There are three very old oak trees in the Middlecroft Lane, and a very big old Cedar tree.

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