Sandhurst, Berkshire: Elsa Stone's Octagonal House.

A Memory of Sandhurst.

In about 1945 my grandparents took me by bus (or train?) from Reading down to Sandhurst, shortly after the death of a distant cousin, Elsa Stone, who had had an octagonal house built during the 1920s. She named it "Wherelse", and it had a central chimney stack and a continuous corridor running
round each storey. In the large garden stood a little wooden chapel on stilts with a harmonium, one of whose treadles had collapsed. Elsa's sister Isobel treated sang "Polly put the kettle on" and gave us tea and cakes. Elsa herself was a great believer in the number seven and the story goes that she asked the builder for a heptagonal house, but he told her that that would be difficult to lay out, so she compromised with eight sides. Elsa was an evangelist who saw it as her job to look after the spiritual health of the young folk at Wellington College---or was it the Military Academy?--- though whether she had an official position there I don't know. I remember walking back to the bus-stop or station down a sloping path, wooded on each side. In about 1963 I thought it would be nice to revisit the house, but I learnt to my great disappointment that it had been demolished.
Elsa and Isobel Stone were born at St Helen's, Isle of Wight. Elsa was born in 1880 and Isobel three years earlier. Elsa died in 1943, but Isobel lived till the late forties or early fifties. Their mother was Sarah H. Butt of Littlehampton, Sussex, and their father was Henry Stone of London.
I'm afraid this little account is full of questions, so if anyone can fill in any of the blanks I should be very grateful indeed.
Many thanks in advance,
Ian Thompson