Lower Barracks was a military installation in Winchester. It was the depot of the

Royal Hampshire Regiment The Hampshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot and the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. The reg ...

from its formation in 1881 until it moved out in 1959. The Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum reopened at Serle's House in 2004. It is one of several independent museums that comprise Winchester's Military Museums.

History

The buildings at the Lower Barracks at Winchester date back to 1730 when Serle's House, which had been designed by

Thomas Archer Thomas Archer (1668–1743) was an English Baroque architect, whose work is somewhat overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. His buildings are important as the only ones by an English Baroque architec ...

, was built for William Seldon. The house was acquired by James Serle, a lawyer, in 1781 and then sold to the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence (MoD ...

in 1796. Most of the other buildings in the Lower Barracks, including a barrack block and a small parade ground, were built during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included t ...

. In 1873 a system of recruiting areas based on counties was instituted under the

Cardwell Reforms The Cardwell Reforms were a series of reforms of the British Army undertaken by Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell between 1868 and 1874 with the support of Liberal prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstone paid little attentio ...

and the barracks became the depot for the

37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot The 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in Ireland in February 1702. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot to become the Hampshire R ...

and the

67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot The 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1756. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Hampshire Regiment (later the Roya ...

. Following the

Childers Reforms The Childers Reforms of 1881 reorganised the infantry regiments of the British Army. The reforms were done by Secretary of State for War Hugh Childers during 1881, and were a continuation of the earlier Cardwell Reforms. The reorganisation was ...

, the 37th and 67th regiments amalgamated to form the

with its depot in the barracks in 1881. The Lower Barracks were demoted to the status of out-station to the Wessex Brigade depot at Topsham Barracks in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal c ...

in 1959. Serle's House was retained by the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

but many of the other buildings were converted for private residential use in the late 1990s.

Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum

The Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum reopened at Serle's House in 2004. The museum contains a display of drums, uniforms and personal artifacts.

References

{{reflist

External links

Royal Hampshire Regiment Memorial Garden & Museum
- official site Installations of the British Army Barracks in England Buildings and structures in Winchester