Hinton Ampner, National Trust
We recently spent a weekend in Newbury, and one of the days out we planned whilst there was to the National Trust property Hinton Ampner, located in Hampshire.
Hinton Ampner’s history extends back 500 years, and the house that stands on the property has been rebuilt or remodelled at least five times, one of these times was after a fire that happened in 1960, where it took three years to rebuild the house you can walk through today.
Walking through the house was the first thing we did at Hinton Ampner. The first room we saw was the Entrance Hall, which took up the front half of the house, and is filled with Italian art and hard stone furniture.
On the ground floor we also saw the Georgian style North and South Drawing Rooms, one of which has a portrait of the last owner (Ralph Dutton’s) grandmother, Lady Lavinia, hanging in it between the windows.
The next room we saw was the Library, which had 2,544 books in it and is the location where the fire in 1960 started. A flame leapt from the fireplace and settled on a sofa, causing flames that damaged all of the books, and spread throughout other rooms.
The marble fireplace in the Library is thought to have possibly come from Marie Antoinette’s palace at St Cloud, on the outskirts of Paris.
After the Library we saw the Study, Sitting Room, and Dining Room. The Dining Room’s most impressive feature was the ceiling.
We then headed upstairs to the first floor, where we saw the bathroom and some bedrooms, as well as stunning views of the surrounding gardens and countryside.
After we walked through the house we walked along a pathway at the entrance to the house and came across All Saints Church, a grade 2 listed building going back to Saxon times. We were able to go inside and have a look.
We then headed back towards the house to view the gardens.
There were many gardens at Hinton Ampner, including the South Lawn that had views of nearby South Downs, a sunken garden, a walled kitchen garden where produce is grown for the café, and a lily pond, which had large fish in it.
Each garden was different, and ranged from natural to highly manicured.
The boys had a small picnic lunch in the garden behind the house, and once finished we explored the manicured garden before heading back to our hotel.
There are also many walks that you can do at Hinton Ampner, as well as a shop, and café, which we will definitely check out if we return.
Hinton Ampner is located near Alresford, Hampshire, SO24 0LA. For more information on Hinton Ampner please visit their website.
Related posts:
A weekend in Newbury
National Trust visits
6 great day trips in England
What are some of your favourite day out locations?
I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below.
