| Original title | Virginia Water House front view |
| Year painted | 1822 |
| Museum reference number | PR166 |
| Address and postcode | Virginia Lodge, Blacknest Road, Virginia Water, GU25 4NU |
| Listed building number | |
| Construction date of building depicted and major alterations | 1780s designed by Thomas Sandby. Some alterations made in the late 1820s by Wyatville – gothic details and a verandah (now lost). Further alterations to divide the building into three lodgings and then back again. 1930s windows and pebbledashing. |
| History of ownership/residents and use | Despite its current appearance, half hidden by greenery, Jane Roberts (1997) tells us Virginia Water Lodge was originally ‘intended to dominate the hillside’ as an eyecatcher above the new pondhead and cascade at Virginia Water’ as can be seen in Hassell’s other picture of the Lodge and cascade (PR176). Hassell notes on that painting that it is ‘Mr Turner’s House’, so we know that Timothy Turner the Game Keeper lived there from as early as 1822. During his time the game in the Park was valued and increased. In the 1830s a pheasantry was built near Virginia Lodge.Turner died in 1840. James Turner (b. c.1792 d.c.1864) was Head Keeper in the 1840s and 50s and lived at Virginia Lodge with his wife Sarah, their five daughters and a 31 year old woman called Eliza Turner who was probably his sister. By the 1851 census only two daughters are still at home and two servants have joined the household: Frederick Ray or Bay, a Groom and John Woodison, a Dog Feeder. Woodison would probably have worked at the new kennel that was built nearby in the 1840s with dog beds for Prince Albert’s dogs. By 1861 James Turner, his wife and two unmarried daughters had been joined by a grandson ‘Arthur Bonus’ age 7 and a ‘visitor’ Mr Fisher, a chemist, from Yorkshire age 25. When James Turner retired in 1861 the post of Head Gamekeeper was combined temporarily with that of Head Park Keeper and Virginia Lodge became redundant so Queen Victoria gave the house to Maria Jane Byng, the widowed mother of one of her maids of honour. The Queen insisted that a Water Closet must be installed to make it suitable for a Lady to live in. After Mrs Byng’s death in 1874 the house was made into three flats occupied by Thomas Wells, a Locksmith, the Policeman in charge of the Grounds and one of the Park Labourers called J. Stevens. In the 1920s the house was converted into the residence of the Park Constable. He retired in 1936 and the house was taken by the Clerk of Works. Alterations were carried out at this time and this is probably when the current 1930s windows appeared. In the 1990s Virginia Lodge was occupied by The Assistant Park Superintendent, responsible for the Valley Gardens opposite. |
| Location’s present status | Currently occupied by staff of Windsor Great Park. |
| Links and references | See also PR176. A well researched section on Virginia Lodge can be found in Jane Roberts’ book, Royal Landscape:Gardens and Parks of Windsor. Yale University Press, 1997. Another picture of the house by Delamotte showing Wyatville’s gothic additions is held at the Royal Collections Trust: https://www.rct.uk/collection/700819/the-keepers-royal-lodge-virginia-water |
