Immaculate Grade II* Georgian Manor House

Description

Kilmeston Manor is an outstanding Grade II* listed house, with Tudor origins, and is documented in Nicholas Pevsner’s “Buildings of England”. With an early 18th century main façade, it has been added to at various points in its history, and has recently been comprehensively renovated for modern, 21st century living, with the addition of an impressive new dining room.

The house is arranged over four floors, providing spacious family living, as well as excellent entertaining space in the well-proportioned reception rooms. The property has a wealth of period features including high ceilings, tall sash windows, working shutters, elegant wide wooden floors, attractive large open fireplaces, rare early 18th century oak panelling and decorative moulded cornicing. In addition to the main house there is a large, fully refurbished Victorian Coach House, a garage block, tennis court and swimming pool.

The well-maintained formal gardens have been beautifully landscaped, with an avenue of cherry trees leading to the tennis court and swimming pool, an orchard, a prepared space for a kitchen garden and a charming knot garden next to the kitchen. Rows of pleached lime trees frame the stunning formal entrance and enclose further parts of the garden and a mature yew cloud hedge has been created alongside the western boundary.

Outbuildings - To the south west of the property and accessed from the secondary drive are the outbuildings, constructed of a variety of brick and tile, and wooden weather boarding comprising garaging and a garden store. In the north part of the garden, there is also a charming summer house, formerly an apple store, of knapped flint with brick dressings, a thatched roof and gothic windows. A perfect playhouse or separate office.

Gardens and Grounds - These are a particular feature of the manor and have been thoughtfully and classically created. Extensive formal gardens and more informal grounds surround the manor house. The property is approached via a gravel driveway, which leads up through mature trees to the impressive main entrance, which is framed by clipped yew hedging, topiary and rows of pleached limes. This main entrance courtyard is enclosed by low walls with wrought iron railings, the entrance gate is flanked by ornate stone piers topped with neoclassical Coade stone urns. Two small formal lawns and rose beds lie on either side of the wide, original stone paved path, which leads to the main front door.

To one side of the entrance at the front, a large flat expanse of lawn - once a grass tennis court - lies to the eastern side of the house and is used for croquet, marquees and general games. The woodland area beyond contains mature specimens of yew, oak, tulip trees, cedar of Lebanon and larch, and is a carpet of daffodils and bluebells in the spring. At the bottom, on the other side of a garden wall, near the main gates, are two fields, which lie on either side of the lane. A public footpath (hidden from the house) runs behind the wall, through one of the fields and leads directly to the National Trust Hinton Ampner estate beyond.

To the rear of the manor, a gravel path leads through a large wrought-iron gate to the back. An avenue of wild cherry trees leads to a further iron gate at the end, with access to the tennis court beyond. On one side of the cherry avenue is a small garden, enclosed by a beech hedge, with a thatched, brick and flint summer house, believed to date from 1906 and a lawn dominated by two old mulberry trees. On the opposite side, a wide flag stone path leads along the back of the house to the walled swimming pool garden, kitchen knot garden, orchard and two greenhouses. There is a separate pool room with boiler, water treatment and related facilities.

Location

Located in the South Downs National Park, designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Kilmeston Manor sits beautifully in the heart of the village, backing onto National Trust land in the form of the Hinton Ampner Estate. It is perfectly positioned for access into Winchester, Alresford and Stockbridge. The surrounding Hampshire countryside provides excellent opportunities for fishing and stunning walks in the Itchen Valley and the Meon Valley, while the attractive Georgian market town of Alresford, and Winchester, provide extensive shopping and entertainment opportunities. There are good transport links, with frequent train services to London (Waterloo) from
Winchester (58 minutes), while the M3 motorway and the A3 give excellent access to London, Gatwick and Heathrow via the M25, and to the international airport at Southampton.

There is a superb range of schools within easy reach including St Swithun’s School for girls, Winchester College, Prince’s Mead, Twyford and Pilgrims preparatory schools.




Acreage: 20 Acres

Directions

From London take the M4, then the M25, then the M3 West. Leave the M3 at J9. At the roundabout, take the first exit towards Alresford. At the next roundabout, take the first exit (A31 towards Petersfield). After a mile including a short stretch of dual carriageway, at the roundabout take the fourth exit (doubling back onto the A31 in the opposite direction) marked Petersfield (A272). After 100 yards, take the left turning (also marked Petersfield A272). After 8 miles, upon entering the outskirts of Cheriton, you will come to a crossroads signposted Alresford (to the left) and Kilmeston (to the right); take the right turning towards Kilmeston.

Proceed about a mile into the village of Kilmeston and on the lefthand side is a brick and flint wall, backed by cloud yew hedging. At the next turning (opposite the red BT phonebox), continue past the first set of gates with brick piers marked Kilmeston Manor to the main gates, which are located 100 yards further down the road, after the Church on the left hand side.

Additional Info

Kilmeston Manor has a rich and diverse history. Dating back to the 16th century, it has been substantially altered and remodelled over the following five hundred years. In the 18th century the then owner, Thomas Ridge, took over the Kilmeston Hunt, developing it into the Hampshire Hunt. The Prince of Wales, later to become George IV, was a frequent visitor at the manor for hunting (allegedly with his morganatic wife, Maria Fitzherbert), and the insignia of the Hampshire Hunt still includes the Prince of Wales’s feathers. A fragment from a pane of glass in the kitchen bears part of the scratched lines of a love poem taken from Hamlet, signed “George R”. The core of the original house is a Tudor, timber-built hall house and includes major, early eighteenth-century additions, but was also extensively modified in the late-nineteenth century, when the main entrance hall, with gallery, was added.

Kilmeston Manor has recently been refurbished over a four year period, by the current owners, to an extremely high specification and the house offers the perfect blend of a magnificent, historical manor house with modern luxurious family living.