Venues in Hampshire & the New Forest
Hook and Dogmersfield in north Hampshire, and the open heath of the New Forest: country houses, estates and hotels let on exclusive use.
Lime Wood
Hampshire & the New Forest — Hotel
Up to 110 guests
A New Forest country house with fireside private dining rooms, a chef's table from Angela Hartnett and Luke Holder's kitchen, and whole-house hire midweek for up to 110.
Chewton Glen
Hampshire & the New Forest — Hotel
Up to 200 guests
An eighteenth-century country house hotel on the edge of the New Forest, with a 200-guest Lake Suite, a walled garden and exclusive use of the whole estate.
Highclere Castle
Hampshire & the New Forest — Country House
Up to 150 guests
The Carnarvon family seat and the house behind Downton Abbey, with State Rooms for 150, a State Dining Room for 24 and a marquee on the lawns.
Lainston House
Hampshire & the New Forest — Hotel
Up to 200 guests
A late 17th-century red-brick house in 63 acres outside Winchester, with a 120-seat 17th-century barn, a panelled private dining room and whole-estate exclusive use.
Heckfield Place
Hampshire & the New Forest — Hotel
Up to 190 guests
A restored Georgian house on a 438-acre Hampshire estate, with kitchens fed by its own farm and garden, a subterranean screening room and a garden-floor Assembly Room for 190.
THE PIG in the New Forest
Hampshire & the New Forest — Hotel
The original PIG, a 1602 forest lodge outside Brockenhurst with a conservatory restaurant fed by its walled Kitchen Garden and a panelled private dining room seating fourteen.
Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire
Hampshire & the New Forest — Hotel
Up to 250 guests
A Grade I listed Georgian manor in 500 acres near Dogmersfield, let whole or by the room, with a pillarless ballroom for 200 and a 16th-century walled garden.
Farleigh House
Hampshire & the New Forest — Country House
Up to 350 guests
The Wallop family's flint house on a 4,000-acre Hampshire estate, let whole: dinner for 40 in the Dining Room, marquees for 350 in ten acres of gardens.
Pylewell Park
Hampshire & the New Forest — Country House
Up to 250 guests
A Grade II* country house on the Solent near Lymington, taken exclusively with its drawing room, 13 bedrooms and a Pavilion for 200.
Somerley House
Hampshire & the New Forest — Country House
Up to 250 guests
The Earl of Normanton's Georgian house on a 7,000-acre New Forest estate, let whole: dinner for 140 in the 90ft Picture Gallery, or a marquee for 250 on the lawn.
/ About Hampshire & the New Forest▾
The New Forest was made a royal hunting ground by William the Conqueror around 1079, the ‘Nova foresta’ of the Norman kings, with Forest Law laid over the people already living there. The Charter of the Forest of 1217 eased that law, and its legacy survives in the commoners who still graze livestock on the open Forest. The New Forest Act of 1877 confirmed their historic rights and stopped enclosure, and in 2005 the Forest became a National Park, mostly in south-west Hampshire. To the north, around Hook and Dogmersfield, the county turns to farmland and parkland.
Hampshire’s hire product divides between those two halves. In the north it is the country-house hotel in its own parkland and the estate let whole, close enough to London for a dinner that does not ask guests to stay. In the New Forest it is the house on the edge of the heath, the manor with a lawn for a marquee, and the forest hotel on exclusive use for a weekend. A hotel brings its kitchen, staff and bedrooms; a private house brings all three in. Capacity is set by the largest room and the grounds, and in the Forest a marquee and its parking are planned around the grazing animals.
The two halves sit at different distances from London. Hook is on the South Western Railway line from London Waterloo, under an hour on the fastest trains, and the last train back leaves shortly before midnight, so north Hampshire can hold an evening that ends in town. Brockenhurst, in the New Forest, is about an hour and a half from Waterloo on the fastest services and nearer two on others, and the last train back leaves before 10.45pm. The M3 serves both halves, with the M27 carrying on west. A New Forest occasion is usually a weekend, with guests staying over and a coach from a single London pick-up.