Beaulieu Palace House ( ) is a 13th-century house in Beaulieu,

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Originally part of Beaulieu Abbey, the estate was bought in 1538 by

Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton (21 December 1505 – 30 July 1550), KG was an English peer, secretary of state, Lord Chancellor and Lord High Admiral. A naturally skilled but unscrupulous and devious politician who changed with t ...

, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It is still owned and occupied by the earl's descendants, the Barons Montagu of Beaulieu.

History

Beaulieu Palace House was originally built in the 13th century as the

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mo ...

of Beaulieu Abbey. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the estate was purchased by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, later 1st

Earl of Southampton Earl of Southampton was a title that was created three times in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1537 in favour of the courtier William FitzWilliam. He was childless and the title became extinct on his death in 1542. The s ...

, in 1538. The house passed through marriage into the Montagu family and is still owned by the 1st Earl's descendant, the 4th Baron Montagu of Beaulieu. The house was extended in the 16th century, and again in the 19th century, and is today a fine example of a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

country house. The house overlooks

Beaulieu River The Beaulieu River ( ), formerly known as the River Exe, is a small river draining much of the central New Forest in Hampshire, southern England. The river has many small upper branches and its farthest source is from its -long tidal estuary. ...

and is surrounded by lawns and walkways. The inside of the house has been kept in a Victorian style. King James stayed at Beaulieu in August 1613 and gave an audience to the Venetian ambassador

Antonio Foscarini Antonio Foscarini (c. 1570 in Venice – April 22, 1622) belonged to the Venetian nobility and was Venetian ambassador to Paris and later to London. He was the third son of Nicolò di Alvise of the family branch of San Polo and Maria Barbarigo di ...

.Allen Hinds, ''Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1613-1615'', vol. 13 (London, 1907), p. 32 no. 60. Although still home to the current Lord and Lady Montagu, parts of the house and gardens are open daily to the public. It is a member of the

Treasure Houses of England The Treasure Houses of England group is a heritage consortium. It was founded in the early 1970s by nine of the foremost stately homes in England still in private ownership, with the aim of marketing and promoting themselves as tourist venues. ...

consortium. The Palace House is open to the public as part of the visitor attraction known as "Beaulieu", which includes: * Beaulieu Abbey * National Motor Museum * Beaulieu Palace House * World of

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

* Secret Army Exhibition - an exhibit about the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

training at Beaulieu during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

* Gardens * A

monorail A monorail (from "mono", meaning "one", and " rail") is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurat ...

* Rides

In film

The 1936 British Pathé film, 'Miniature Railway', (ID Number 1222.23), is a 1':40" long feature which shows (Miss.) "Mary Cook" driving the engine around the grounds.

Local folklore and legend

Beaulieu, according to the official website, is one of the most haunted places in Britain, with reported sightings going back over a hundred years, and possibly as far as the mid-16th century. Numerous paranormal investigators have conducted research at the abbey, including Arthur Conan Doyle, who it is claimed made contact with a ghost during a

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spea ...

at Palace House. A lady in blue or grey, reportedly sighted walking through walls and making a lot of noise in the private apartments, is believed to be the ghost of the Countess of Beaulieu, Lady Isabella, who died in 1786. The smell of incense, which allegedly signals tragedy for the people of the abbey or the village, was also reported by

Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (20 October 1926 – 31 August 2015), was an English aristocrat and Conservative politician, best known for founding the National Motor Museum, as well as for a pivota ...

among others in a room of the Palace House used as a chapel in the Middle Ages.

References

External links

Official website
{{Treasure Houses of England Buildings and structures completed in the 13th century Country houses in Hampshire Palaces in England Historic house museums in Hampshire Grade I listed buildings in Hampshire Grade I listed palaces New Forest folklore Reportedly haunted locations in South East England