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Hockley, Gloucester County, Virginia

Gloucester County, Virginia geography stubsUnincorporated communities in Gloucester County, VirginiaUnincorporated communities in VirginiaUse mdy dates from July 2023

Hockley, Gloucester County, is an unincorporated community in Gloucester County, Virginia.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Hockley, Gloucester County, Virginia (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Hockley, Gloucester County, Virginia
Hockley Wharf Lane,

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 37.395555555556 ° E -76.460555555556 °
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Address

Hockley Wharf Lane 6548
23061
Virginia, United States
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Burgh Westra
Burgh Westra

Burgh Westra is a historic home located near Gloucester, Gloucester County, Virginia. Built between 1842 and 1851 on 2,400 acres, the estate's original design is a two and a half story brick dwelling in the Gothic Revival style. In addition to the main house, the property contains an original dairy, a rebuilt carriage house, guest cottage, gazebo built upon original sketches of Dr Taliaferro, north and south gardens modeled on the original house designs, and a kitchen vegetable garden. Additional dependency foundations of the kitchen, smoke, and ice houses on the property are currently under consideration for reconstruction. Still noticeable in the spring are native daffodils planted around the entrances to originally wooden servant houses on either side of the lane. Aspects of the original fruit and nut orchards are located next to the estate and near the remains of a barn burned by raiding union troops during the Civil War. The extended property contains the original farm managers house and working and fallow fields along the estate's nearly 2-mile long lane. Burgh Westra's floor plan is Design III in Cottage Residences (1842), by Andrew Jackson Downing. The name "Burgh Westra" comes from the Scottish phrase for "Village of the West", symbolizing the cottage's location on the North River, Virginia. Burgh Westra's builder was Warner Throckmorton Taliaferro of Belleville Plantation on the North River for his son, Dr. Philip Taliaferro. Dr. Taliaferro discussed potential designs and a desire to build the estate on the eventual land tract while studying medicine in Scotland, Dublin, and London (receiving his degree from William Wilde, at Trinity College Dublin. During the Civil War, Dr. Taliaferro, the nephew of Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon, accompanied his half-brother, William B. Taliaferro, a general in the Confederate army, to serve with General Stonewall Jackson (1824–1863) in the Shenandoah Valley as an aide-de-camp. William B. Taliaferro commanded Jackson's division at Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas and Fredericksburg. He commanded Fort Wagner, SC (famous for the movie Glory ), served on James Island, SC, and in Florida and Georgia (as head of the Confederate army in Savannah). Upon returning to Burgh Westra during the war, Dr. Taliaferro opened up his estate as a hospital for wounded soldiers of both sides. The estates lawns were the site of occasional Union troop encampments during the war. At least two unidentified confederate soldiers who died at Burgh Westra are buried at nearby Ware Episcopal Church which union troops used as a stable during the war. Remains of soldiers have on occasion been found near the shoreline as recently as the 1950s. Additional family owners include Beverly Randolph Wellford Jr, son of Beverly Randolph Wellford and Henry Alexander White.The home continues to be owned by the original family, and is suspected to be the oldest continual ownership of a house in Gloucester County, Virginia. The family has owned this and other land tracts and estates on the North River dating back to the early 1600s. Burgh Westra was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. it contains many rare antiques including some of the only furniture from the original Randolph family estate, Turkey Island Plantation, and a Thomas Sully of Susan Seddon Taliaferro.

White Hall (Zanoni, Virginia)

White Hall on the Ware River near Zanoni, Gloucester County, Virginia, was the ancestral home of the prominent Willis family of colonial Virginia.The Willises were one of the First Families of Virginia, with the first settler arriving by 1642. Other family members include the Francis Willis (academic) and Francis Willis (Representative). The 2+1⁄2-story brick home on the property since 1836 was described as "an excellent example of the temple-form dwelling so popular in this region during the early decades of the 19th Century" in a 1984 nomination for the National Register of Historic Places."With its classical, temple-like mass, White Hall epitomizes the neo-classical spirit which pervades early American decorative art," the nomination adds.The nomination, approved by the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission, describes the home as a mix of original construction by Dr. Samuel Powell Byrd in 1836 and a series of renovations.The living room and dining room contain "handsome colonial revival paneling" from a 1938 restoration but mantels that are much earlier with "quirked moldings, carried on flanking Tucsan colonetts" and the original doors opening on the front porch facing the Ware River.White Hall sits on a 7-acre tract on the Ware River near the mouth of Wilson Creek and is reached by a long, curving drive lined with mature cedars.The house is the successor to an earlier, one-story brick house built by the Willis family.The land was patented in 1666 by Francis Willis, the first in the family to arrive in Virginia from Oxford, England. He served as a delegate from Gloucester County to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1652.Francis Willis returned to England and bequeathed the estate upon his death in 1690 to a nephew, Francis Willis. He is believed to have started the first house, which measured 56 feet by 22 feet. A wing added later measured 17 feet by 25 feet.The nephew left the house to his son Francis, who became the head of a prominent Virginia family and served in the House of Burgesses in 1748.The home is located about six miles southeast of the Gloucester County Courthouse and is one of several National Register of Historic Places listings in Gloucester County, Virginia. It is privately owned.