Avon Castle

Avon Castle
Hampshire
Avon Castle
Location
Grid reference:	SU13830302
Location:	50°49’36"N, 1°48’18"W
History
	Built 1872
For:	John Mills
	Country house
Information
Condition:	Converted to apartments
Website:	http://avoncastle.net

Avon Castle is a Victorian country house on the western bank of the River Avon in Hampshire. It is found to the south of St Ives, Hampshire, now surrounded by a new development of St Leonards known as Leybrook Common.

History

Of an earlier house here nothing remains but the remains of Avon Lodge, dating from around 1650. The site was part of the Manor of Leybrook, and owned by the Lyne family.

The Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway was driven through the estate under a private Act of Parliament of 1859, a condition of which, required by the estate's owner, was that the railway company build a 'lodge'; a private railway station for the occupier of Avon Cottage and that by displaying a red flag or red lamp the occupier could stop any scheduled train. Avon Cottage later became Avon Castle.

In around 1872, John Mills of Bisterne built Avon Castle, at a cost of £80,000, at which time it was within an estate of about 1,322 acres, including a half mile stretch of the riverbank of the Hampshire Avon. In 1873, the castle and estate were bought by John Edmund Unett Philipson Turner-Turner (author of "Three Years Hunting and Trapping in America and the Great North west" published in 1888). It was reported to be a wedding gift for his wife.

During Turner’s ownership, the Castle became a country hotel for a short period. He also had a chapel built on the high ground overlooking the river, near the end of the road now known as Chapel Rise. (The chapel was demolished in 1964, and the rubble was used to construct Chapel Rise. One of the vaults of the chapel was used during the Second World War by the Home Guard as an ammunition store.)

In 1901, the Estate was purchased by Colonel Rolf Peacock as a residence in retirement. In 1913 though Colonel Peacock sold the Castle and Estate to the 9th Earl of Egmont.

During the ownership of the 9th Earl, in the 1920s a disastrous fire swept through the Avon Castle Estate, spreading to Matchams Park and Hurn.

The Earl died in 1930 and was succeeded by a relative who was then living in Alberta.

In 1930, the 10th Earl of Egmont moved into the Castle, but was ruined by legal fees (his succession being disputed) and death duties so most of the furniture had to be sold, together with the collection of paintings which were auctioned by Christies on 12th December 1930. During the sale a visitor climbed on to the platform in the sale room and proclaimed that "I am the claimant to the Egmont Estates and I make a protest against this sale", and had to be removed to permit the sale to continue. Just two years after his succession though, in 1932, the 10th Earl was killed in a car accident in the New Forest and was succeeded by his 17 year old son, who returned to Canada, to run a 900 acre farm called "Little Avon". He sold the Avon Castle estate in 1938 and it was broken up into lots.

Avon Lodge Station was closed and the line removed in 1938.

In 1939, the Castle was bought by Montague Meyer, timber merchants, and in 1945 it was bought by Mr D Knott, who founded Bluebird Caravans. The next year it passed to the Coalville Estates, and then to Vernon Cotes, who converted it into a private hotel.

Soon afterwards the Castle was converted into nine self contained flats.

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Avon Castle)

References

• Report by Derek J Hartley-Brown of Hamiltons, Land & Property Agents, Westbourne (1983/4)