Probably built in the Regency period, Fairfield was shown on Woods’s map of 1841as being owned by Ralph Allen Daniell. The estate lay between Belmore Road and Church Lane and was built on the site of the 36-acre Townsend Farm. Ralph and Eliza had eight children.
When Fairfield was purchased by Richard Blanshard in 1861 it had seven bedrooms and four servants’ bedrooms and stood in 43 acres of grounds. It was subject to a fee farm rent of £5 3s 4d, payable to the lord of the manor of Old Lymington. Over the next 14 years Richard purchased over 20 acres of surrounding land. The house was advertised in auction on his death in 1894 as having six bedrooms and three servants’ bedrooms. The estate had grown to include Elm Grove House, Broad Lane Nurseries and 13 cottage tenements in Church Lane. The reserve of £5,500 on the house and 25 acres was not reached but it was later sold for £5,000. Of the 14 lots only another three were sold.
