Stirling Castle. St Helier
Historic Jersey buildings
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Property name
Stirling Castle
Location
Mont Neron, St Helier
Type of property
19th century brick building
Valuations
No recent transactions
Families associated with the property
- Stirling
- McCarthy - family owned the property in the 20th and 21st centuries
Historic Environment Record entry
Listed building
An unusual romantic 'chateau' in the Gothic style, built in two stages in the early and mid 19th century, retaining original features and character in a substantial landscape setting.
Built circa 1805 by Captain Charles Stirling RN, then in command of the signalling station on Mount Bingham. The northern part of the house was added in 1858 by his nephew Edward Hamilton Stirling, using brick instead of stone. Oral tradition has it that Captain Stirling required a house in sight of his signal station; within reach of it on horseback if action threatened; and on a site with fresh running water.
He modelled his home, it is said, on a brick built Elizabethan watchtower in his native East Anglia. Crucifix form building, five-storey central tower, three-four storey cruciform and two-storey infills at the front.
Red brick piers with red brick infill, painted in parts. Brickwork parapet with pointed arches and a rounded brick cornice. Rounded brick pointed (Gothic and Tudor style) arches on door and windows. Windows are timber casements with Tudor arch heads and tops. Round window over door with Star of David at centre in coloured glass.
Stone boundary wall, gateposts topped with slender pyramids. Ornamental gardens. The interior has cruciform plan with open doorways linking the central landing with the four radiating rooms. There is a central lantern in the top floor. Doorcases and windows are modelled in Gothic style.
Honeymoon problems
From a Jersey Heritage article
After years spent on his own as a bachelor, Edward Stirling thought he had the girl. But his love story took a turn for the worse when he was betrayed by his new wife on honeymoon, with all the details later played out publicly in court.
His castle is one of the more unusual buildings in the island and was built on land in the Jardin de Bas en la Valette in St Helier. The Jersey Times of 7 June 1850 records the Masonic ceremony which marked the laying of the foundation stone of the castle. The Masonic star can still be seen on the circular window on the road side of the property today.
Edward was a 53-year-old bachelor and his final years in the civil service had been blighted by ill-health and failing sight. It must have come as a surprise to his family and friends when, on 21 September 1850, he married Anna Isabella Glascock, who was 23-30 years younger than him.
Unfortunately, their marriage did not blossom. Three weeks after the wedding Anna told her husband that she was returning to London. She came back to Jersey 15 days later with her mother, who appeared to patch up any quarrel between the couple and sent them on their honeymoon to Saint Malo on 15 November.
The Chronique de Jersey records that Edward soon discovered that on the ship to Saint Malo was one of his wife’s acquaintances, a Captain Benjamin Page, who she had met at a ball in Dublin. On arrival in Saint Malo, the Stirlings booked into L’Hotel de France with Page taking the room next door to their suite.
Page is said to have dined with the couple and he reportedly took advantage of Edward’s blindness by acting in an indecent manner in public with Anna. That evening she left the suite she had with her husband for three quarters of an hour and was later seen by a servant at the hotel leaving Page’s room. Edward left for St Helier the next day and Page and Anna went to Paris and then London.
In 1851 Edward instituted formal proceedings for a divorce on the grounds of adultery. At the time, Jersey did not have a civil divorce law so the long, drawn-out, scandalous case was heard before the Ecclesiastical Court. It was still unresolved when Anna died in in London in 1859.
Edward remained at Stirling Castle and in the 1871 census, he is registered as blind and living with Sophia Morris, his secretary/manager; Pauline King, his cook; and 19-year-old Anne Ryan, the housemaid.
Edward died in December 1873 and in his will he left all his household furniture and effects to Barbé Metz, also known as Miss Mars. The will contains a comprehensive list of furniture and household goods, including a piano, seven mahogany chairs, flower stand and pepper box. It also lists 128 books left to Miss Metz
- Stirling Castle: Further reading, with more details of Edward Stirling's marriage and divorce
