Hamptworth Lodge

Hamptworth Lodge - awaiting image

Hamptworth Lodge is an Edwardian rebuilding of an earlier Jacobean manor house of brick and timber. The Lodge is furnished with Elizabethan and Jacobean pieces and features a collection of unique 17th-century wall hangings.

History

In 1912 HC Moffat called in architect Sir Guy Dawber to create a house to replace an early 17th-century manor house in the same location on the northern fringe of the New Forest. Parts of the earlier building were incorporated into the service wing of the new Lodge.

The result is a large rectangular building on a north-south axis, in an informal Elizabethan style. The interior features very finely crafted woodwork throughout, with beautiful oak panelling. The Hall has a collar roof with a carved frieze depicting roses. The centrepiece is a Tudor stone fireplace with an overmantle decorated with strapwork and a back built of brick laid in herringbone style.

The house is surrounded by wide lawns and wooded parkland, in an estate stretching 3000 acres. Closer to the house are terraced gardens. In the grounds is a 17th-century timber tithe barn.

Visiting

The house is unfortunately only rarely open to the public. The estate seems to be geared towards offering shooting, stalking, and gun dog training opportunities, in part to help manage a large herd of resident deer in the woodland.