Minley Manor
| Minley Manor | |
|---|---|
|
Minley Manor | |
| Active | 1930s– |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Branch | British Army |
| Type | Engineer Training |
| Role | Officers' Mess |
| Garrison/HQ | Minley |
Coordinates: 51°19′01″N 0°49′12″W / 51.317°N 0.820°W Minley Manor is a Grade 2* listed country manor house, located within a grade II registered garden, built in the French style by Henry Clutton in the 1860s with further additions in the 1880s. The Manor is situated 2 miles north of junction 4A of the M3 between Farnborough and Yateley in Hampshire, England and is situated in 38 hectares of grounds.[1]
History
The current manor house was built in the French style by Henry Clutton between 1858 and 1860 for Raikes Currie, a partner in Glyn Mills' Bank.[2] During the next three years attention turned to the estate, with the creation of formal gardens around the house and a kitchen garden. The remainder was landscaped as pleasure gardens by F W Meyer,[3] working with the horticulturists Veitch & Sons of Exeter. On Raikes' death in 1881, his son Bertram continued the development, employing Messrs Veitch to lay out a Winter Garden and extensions to the pleasure gardens, which included Hawley Lake, in the 1880s. The house was the birthplace of the British diplomat Sir Reginald Hoare in 1882.[4] Raikes' grandson Laurence Currie built a water tower, created a new complex of walled gardens and further extended the ornamental planting and woodland.[2]
The property passed to the War Office in 1934,[2] initially for the Senior Wing of the nearby Staff College, Camberley.[5] It has been used since 1971 as the Officers' Mess for Royal School of Military Engineering units at Gibraltar Barracks, which are located on the opposite side of the A327 Minley Road.[2] One of the main features is a 600 metre Wellingtonia tree avenue, which was shown off to good effect in the 1969 movie Mosquito Squadron, where the manor house played the part of a French château used as a prisoner of war camp and factory for the V-1 flying bomb. The Manor was also used as a location in the 2007 Victorian fantasy movie Stardust, starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer.[6]
There are plans as part of the RSME-PPP project with the Holdfast consortium for major works on the Gibraltar Barracks site, including a new officers' mess. The MoD intend to partially fund the project by the eventual sale of the Manor.[7] As of 2014, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation is marketing Minley Manor. [8]
References
- ↑ MoD Film Locations
- 1 2 3 4 English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest
- ↑ F W Meyer
- ↑ Reginald Hoare at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ↑ Vote a. Number of Land Forces Army Estimates, 1949–50
- ↑ Lights Camera Action! MOD provides movie backdrops
- ↑ Ministry of Defence Heritage Report 2009
- ↑ "Minley Road, Blackwater, Surrey.". Primelocation.