Start outside the refectory side of Saint Francis House, close to the Calvary.

FRANCIS HOUSE

The land here was part of the large Dorset estates of the Earls of Sandwich and on this land was a small farmhouse. In 1888, the 8th Earl of Sandwich, who had 'a mania for building', added on the imposing front section that you see (you can note the date on the stone plaque on the building) in order to make the house into a 'shooting-lodge', a place he could take guests to stay after a day's hunting in the woods.

It eventually fell into disuse and so in 1912-13, the Earl allowed his nephew and heir (who succeeded as 9th Earl of Sandwich in 1916) to create a special school for children with social and behavioural problems. Run by the American psychologist Homer Lane, it was known as the Little Commonwealth. To accommodate the children, several other houses were built (which we shall see later), and each had a house-mother and a house-father, who cared for a group of boys and girls.

The houses were given names based on country plants. The old house before you was called 'Bramble Cottage'. The work begun by Homer Lane collapsed soon after, under the difficult conditions of the First World War and, after 1918, the place was used for a while to train ex-soldiers in agriculture. Then in December 1921, the 9th Earl agreed to let the place to Brother Giles and a group of Franciscans so that they could set up a home for wayfarers (homeless men travelling about the roads of England, searching for work).

Then go into refectory through the big door, the original shooting lodge entrance.

The large room (now the refectory) was once two rooms with a spacious entrance hall in the centre. The internal walls were demolished by the brothers, one in Spring 1929 (kitchen end), the other in 1936-37 (scullery end) to make one large dining room, in monastic terms called a Refectory..

On arrival on 17 December 1921, the brothers first prayed in a room upstairs above the kitchen, but the first proper chapel was the room at the present scullery end of the Refectory. The altar was eventually put in front of the fireplace and the mantelpiece used as a gradine for candlesticks. It was used as a chapel until 1928.

The Kitchen seems always to have been sited in the same place as today, though the coal-fired Aga cooker is long gone.

The tailor's shop is housed upstairs in Francis House, where all the habits are made.

Upstairs, also, live half a dozen brothers and other residents.

Go through to the courtyard.

COURTYARD

In Homer Lane's day, this farmyard was converted into a playground and a badminton court laid in the concrete. One barn (now the recreation room) was converted into the schoolroom, and to summon the children to class, the bell was put onto the porch of the main house. The children were taught social skills, and part of this was the reward of being given token money. This could be saved in a bank or spent in a shop, and these are now combined to create the Friary shop. The present Giles house was the school office. The back of Saint Francis Chapel was the laundry and craft workshop.

SAINT FRANCIS' CHAPEL

The first chapel here was just the present back part, the altar being where the Enzio Plazzoto triple-crucifix bronze now is. Note shape of roof to look like a chancel. Enzio Plazzoto came to the Friary in 1971 and asked to make a gift of it to the community.

Two carved stalls (now in Saint Clare's Chapel) were made by a wayfarer, and other wayfarers made matting for the floor.

The ikon of the Crucifixion is a painted copy of the original in St Damian's Church in Assisi, when our holy father Francis heard the words, 'Francis, rebuild my Church, which you see is falling down.

The Statue of 'Francis the Teacher' was carved by a MaKondi craftsman in Tanzania, and was a gift from four young doctors who went to work in East Africa specifically as a group of Companions of SSF.

Proceed to Clare House and stop on the lawn

 CLARE HOUSE

This was the first of the houses built by Homer Lane, with the children helping the contractors in the construction. It was known then as Bracken Cottage and was the house in which Homer Lane and his wife acted as house-father and house-mother. When the brothers came, it was occupied from 1922-24 by Major Lloyd (and his family) as he, a retired army officer, had moved there to act as the Treasurer for the Franciscan community.

In 1930, a companion priest and his wife (Peter and Grace Harvey) moved in and for two years ran the house as a guest and retreat house. At this time it was renamed Clare House and the chapel was created. It was blessed on 14 November 1930. The sacrament has been reserved since c1940, when Father Algy persuaded the Bishop, on the grounds that the brothers might have to give communion to any dying airman whose plane crashed in the grounds!

Move on to Juniper house.

JUNIPER HOUSE

This was known as Veronica Cottage in Homer Lane's day. Part of it was the home of the Symes' family in the 1920s up to 1938, who for years looked after the gardens. From September to December 1939, it housed evacuee boys from Southwark and then, from September 1940, Father Owen ran an evacuated Remand Home there. These boys converted the coal-shed into Saint Mary-of-the-Angels Chapel, the first mass said there being on 17 September, the Feast of the Stigmata, 1941. The large downstairs room in the house was used, for many years after the War (when the remand home left) as the Chapter Room.

CEMETERY

Originally this land was to have had three more houses built on it, clustered around a 'village green' at the end of the avenue of lime trees. But Homer Lane's plans were never completed. The cemetery was created in 1960, following the brothers' purchase of the premises from the Earl of Sandwich in 1957. The first interment was Father Charles in November 1961. It is now the final resting place for all the departed brothers of the European Province and many of the residents who have died at Hilfield.

Proceed up the avenue to Bernard House.

BERNARD HOUSE

This was Heather Cottage in the days of the school. When the brothers first came, they ran the farm, too, and the Earl put in a farm bailiff, Harold Tilby, who lived in this house with his family. In view of the debts the farm created, the brothers ceased to run it from 1924, and the farm was rented by Albert Vardy. This house then became his farmhouse.
The family remained quite independent of the brothers, although relations were friendly. In 1961, Albery Vardy died and his family moved out. The house then became the novice house for a while before being used to house a home for ex-borstal boys in the late 1960s.

Today, the Minister Provincial lives here, together with the Provincial Bursar and one or two other brothers.

Proceed to Leo House

LEO HOUSE

This site was where Homer Lane intended to build a large assembly hall. When the brothers came, the space was eventually used to build an Industries Hut, opened by Major Lloyd's wife on 1 July 1930. It held five weaving looms, a printing press and a showroom for goods made by the wayfarers. The showroom became the place used by the Saint John's Ambulance Brigade in the last war and so was called the barrack room. It is remembered by senior brothers as the barrack room in which they spent some of their noviciate! It was demolished in 1961-2, when the present building was put up.

At first, it housed a print shop, which occupied most of the floor space. The whole of that area (to the right as you come through the corridor) was converted into a Friary Library in the mid 1970s. To the left, as you come through the corridor, there is an art room for use by anyone staying in the Friary.

THE GARDENS

The vale in which the Friary is sited is fringed by oak, ash and hazel, which effectively conceals it from the eastern approach, while dense coniferous woodland marks its western boundary.

The Friary has both flower and vegetable gardens in the Friary and also soft fruit, apple and pear trees.

The area which began life as 'the swamp' has been transformed, largely by Brother Vincent, into a beautiful rhododendron, magnolia and camellia garden and, because of its hiddenness, it is now know as the Secret Garden - but don't worry, there are signs to it!