Amport House is a

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

near the village of Amport,

Andover, Hampshire Andover ( ) is a town in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The town is on the River Anton, a major tributary of the River Test, Test, and lies alongside the major A303 road, A303 trunk road at the eastern end of Salisbury Plain, ...

, England. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The house was built in 1857 by John Paulet, 14th Marquess of Winchester. After being requisitioned during the Second World War, the house had various military uses and was the home of the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre until March 2020, when it was sold by the Ministry of Defence.

History

The current house was built in 1857 in an

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...

style near the village of Amport by John Paulet, 14th Marquess of Winchester, replacing two earlier houses which had stood on the site. It has a gatehouse and a pleached avenue of

lime tree ''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Great Britain and Irelan ...

s, now believed to be the longest such avenue in the United Kingdom. The last of the Paulet family to reside at Amport was Henry Paulet, 16th Marquess of Winchester. Facing high levels of taxation at the end of the First World War, he sold the estate in lots between November 1918 and July 1919. Not long afterwards, the house and grounds were bought by Colonel Sofer Whitburn DSO, who in 1923 engaged Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll to redesign the gardens. At the start of the Second World War, the house was requisitioned to be used as the headquarters of Royal Air Force Maintenance Command; as well as ceding them use of the house, Sofer Whitburn is reported to have donated his entire

wine cellar A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae, or plastic containers. In an ''active'' wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control s ...

to the Officers' Mess as a patriotic gesture. In 1943, with the RAF still in possession, he sold the house; in 1957, the RAF itself bought the property. Later that year, the Royal Air Force Chaplains' School moved from Dowdeswell Court in Dowdeswell to Amport House. The School included a Royal Navy chaplain staff member, and in 1996, with the closure of the depot of the

Royal Army Chaplains' Department The Royal Army Chaplains' Department (RAChD) is an all-officer department that provides ordained clergy to minister to the British Army. History The Army Chaplains' Department (AChD) was formed by Royal Warrant of 23 September 1796; until the ...

at Bagshot Park, it became the tri-service Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre. In 1984, Amport House became a Grade II

. In September 2016, the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

announced that Amport House would be put up for sale as part of a programme of defence estate rationalisation. ''A Better Defence Estate'', published in November 2016, indicated that the Armed Forces Chaplaincy would close by 2020, which it subsequently did, to be relocated to Shrivenham, near Swindon. The licence for the publication of

banns of marriage The banns of marriage, commonly known simply as the "banns" or "bans" (from a Middle English word meaning "proclamation", rooted in Frankish and thence in Old French), are the public announcement in a Christian parish church, or in the town cou ...

and the solemnisation of such marriages which had been granted to the chapel in January 2000 in accordance with the Marriage Act 1949 was cancelled in July 2020. A converted stable block at the house was for some years the home of the Royal Army Chaplains' Museum, which also moved to Shrivenham. In 2021, plans were announced to convert Amport House into an hotel.

References

External links

Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre
Defence Academy of the United Kingdom official website
Who we are: Amport House
RAF Chaplains official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Amport House Royal Air Force stations in Hampshire Installations of the British Army Royal Navy bases in Hampshire Tudor Revival architecture in England Andover, Hampshire Country houses in Hampshire Royal Army Chaplains' Department Elizabethan architecture Houses completed in 1857 Gardens in Hampshire Gardens by Gertrude Jekyll Works of Edwin Lutyens in England 1857 establishments in England Grade II listed houses in Hampshire

History

See also

References

External links