As anyone who lives on or near a landslip will know, the constantly changing landscape is often what can sometimes make it all the more desirable to live amongst. You’ve only got to wander through the prehistoric-looking surroundings of a landslide to realise its beauty and attraction.
Sunday morning, on the edge of the Bonchurch landslip, proud Victorian villa, North Court, finally gave way to the force of nature, as her structure started to fall to its knees.
The property, owned by Martin and Nicky Evans (of Glory Art Glass in Sandown), has been a home to the family for the last 35 years.
It was originally bought when Martin worked at Isle of Wight Studio Glass in St Lawrence. It being before the arrival of their offspring, the house was often filled with lodgers who loved the surroundings as much as Martin and Nicky.
Always knowing that the house was unstable, Martin and Nicky chose to move out a while ago and into a flat above their Sandown glass studio.
Photographic study
When family friend, Lucy Boynton, heard that the house had finally started to slip away last weekend, she made a bee-line for the property with her trusty camera to grab some images for the family’s benefit.
As you’ll see from the first gallery below, Lucy managed to capture some really beautiful shots of the house just following the slide.
Click on images for full versions
Good times, music videos and badgers
Lucy told us that over the years, the house has seen many parties and good times. In fact, Isle of Wight band, The Shutes recently shot their latest video there (we’ll let you know when it’s released).
One of Martin and Nicky’s sons, Ed (who is also is a glass blower) tells us he even had a pet badger when he was growing up at the house. Apparently the badger behaved exactly like a dog.
Lucy went back to North Court to photograph Ryde Demolition taking the rest of the house down today. She told us that they were superb and very professional, the house coming down without incident and all the mess confined to North Court itself.
Still a home
Despite the house disappearing, the family still consider North Court as being an amazing place, because they think of the whole place as home, not just the house itself.
Click on images for full versions
Our sincerest thoughts go out to Martin and Nicky, Ed and Mer for whom it must’ve been so hard to see their family home finally disappear.
It certainly is a very special place.
Image: © Used with the kind permission of Lucy Boynton
