The building was constucted in an L shape design, so as to take full advantage of both the views over Ouaisne and St. Brelades Bay, allowing Le Maistre to benifit from the properties position for use in some of his paintings, although many of his fine works were created in his studio at La Corbiere, and were largely based on coastlines and bays. Windward House would also contain almost 14 Vergees of lawned gardens, a traditional apple crusher, orchard and fruit garden. The apple grinder was a common feature of Jersey residences in the early part of the 20th Century, as many Jerseymen took an active role in local cider production.
Francis Le Maistre passed away in 1940, and left many of his paintings for his home parish of St. Brelade. Evidence suggests that after the war, the property changed hands a few times, before being owned by Mr and Mrs R.J Martland. Mr and Mrs Martland seemed to fully appreciate the uniqueness of Windward House and maintained the house to an exceptional level, not modernising the house in any shape or form. Mr Martland spent much of his time tending to the enourmous gardens and planting all types of plants and vegitation, it became a hobby he seemingly ebraced. The house and gardens were so grand in scale that they were often used as the opeining garden for the 'Jersey Garden Scheme' events that took place throughout the 1980's and 1990's in order to raise money for the 'Jersey Association for Youth and Friendship'. These were extreamly popular, due to the buildings location, gradure and beauty (See newspaper reports http://www.flickr.com/photos/windward-house-jersey/4315915638/, . However it was during the 1980's that Windward House came to the attention of millions of people worldwide, when it was chosen to be the home of the fictional character 'Charlie Hungerford' in the BBC television series 'Bergerac'. The building was featured once in the episode Portrait of Yesterday during the serials inaugural series, before becoming the home of 'Charlie Hungerford' for the 8 series that followed. During this time, the property was broadcast all over the world, and the house became a popular tourist haunt, as did many other Bergerac locations. Once filming had completed, the property remained under the ownership of the Martlands, who continued to open the gardens to the public, now having to accommodate not only garden lovers but large coach parties of tourists wanting to visit 'Charlie House'. It appears Mr Martland passed away between 2002-2005, and the house and lands were purchsed by Tom Scott, a wealthy UK millionaire businessman. Sources suggest that the building has laid unoccupied eversince, Mr Scott now looked upon the site as 'an investment'. For the last five years or so, the house has been left to fall into a state of disrepair. Mr Scotts plans to demolish the house and re-landscape the site to include a total of 3 new residences. Due to his plans, and acording to local sources, he wasted no time in ripping up the gardens, removing all the trees, hedges, grasses and borders from the grounds, leaving the house looking almost naked in appearence. The original features within the house, such as its 1920's decor, including light switches, windows, staircase and most impressivly, its 1920's passenger lift, which have been beautifully looked after over the years, have now been exposed to at least five summers and five winters of neglect, although they still stood right up until demolition.
