Oak House

New house built in the south-west corner of Waters Green., Brockenhurst A boarding house in 1891, the boarders comprised three gentlemen of private means who described themselves as landscape artists. Two of these men were still in residence in 1901 and in 1911, on separate census entries, one was described as 'occupier of two rooms' and another as 'boarder'. The ownership of the house is unknown.Dating is problematic, as the house appears in the 1891 census but not on the 1897 map. One of the artists of 1891, Hugh Wilkinson (1850-1948), was listed in the 1898 directory but in 1901 was described as 'Barrister at Law' and living with a wife at Beachern Wood (a smaller house along the Rhinefield road); widowed, he was back at Oak House in 1911. He painted a harvest scene entitled 'New Park Farm, Brockenhurst' (held by New Forest Museum and Library). Henry Francis Bailey (1831-1916) left money to buy the Cromer lifeboat. He is described in N. Leach and P. Russell, Cromer Lifeboats, 1804-2004 (Stroud, 2004), 54, as a 'London merchant who was born in Norfolk', although all three census records state that he was born in Thorney, Cambridgeshire. The third of the trio was George Murray Hicks who in 1911 was at Brighton. All three would appear to have died in the New Forest area.