Beaurepaire is a

country estate An estate is a large parcel of land under single ownership, which generates income for its owner. British context In the United Kingdom, historically an estate comprises the houses, outbuildings, supporting farmland, tenanted buildings, and ...

Sherborne St John Sherborne St John is a village and civil parish near Basingstoke in the English county of Hampshire. History The village was named in the Domesday Book as ''Sireburne''. It became ''Shireburna'' (12th century), Schyreburne (13th century) and S ...

in the English county of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

History

Beaurepaire was owned by the Brocas family from

Aquitaine Aquitaine (, ; ; ; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne (), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former Regions of France, administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administ ...

for approximately 500 years. In the 14th century, Sir John Brocas was

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...

Master of the Horse Master of the Horse is an official position in several European nations. It was more common when most countries in Europe were monarchies, and is of varying prominence today. (ancient Rome) The original Master of the Horse () in the Roman Rep ...

. In 1369, Edward permitted John's son,

Bernard Bernard ('' Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It has West Germanic origin and is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''be ...

, to enclose the parkland and create the Beaurepaire estate. As a knight, Bernard was favoured by

Edward, the Black Prince Edward of Woodstock (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), known as the Black Prince, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Edward III of England. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II of England, Richard II, succession to the Br ...

, and accompanied him during the

Battle of Poitiers The Battle of Poitiers was fought on 19September 1356 between a Kingdom of France, French army commanded by King John II of France, King JohnII and an Kingdom of England, Anglo-Gascony, Gascon force under Edward the Black Prince, Edward, the ...

in 1356. Bernard later became Chief Surveyor and Sovereign Warden of the parks at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

; he was acquainted with the college's founder,

William of Wykeham William of Wykeham (; 1320 or 1324 – 27 September 1404) was Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England. He founded New College, Oxford, and New College School in 1379, and founded Winchester College in 1382. He was also the clerk of ...

. The house suffered considerable damage during the Civil War and was later rebuilt in 1777. The house is moated with access over small bridges: the white iron gates to the main bridge were designed by

Sir John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the Ro ...

Recent history

The estate was sold by the Brocas family in 1873. In 1941, the building was largely destroyed by fire. The Tudor servants’ wing, however, survived. The owner at the time of the fire, Sir Strati Ralli, was unable to restore or repair the house due to wartime restriction of building materials. In 1959, the house was bought by Roger Makins, 1st Baron Sherfield who lived in nearby Sherfield. Makins commissioned Tom Bird (an architect who worked at the offices of

Maxwell Fry Edwin Maxwell Fry, CBE, RA, FRIBA, F RTPI (2 August 1899 – 3 September 1987) was an English modernist architect, writer and painter. Originally trained in the neo-classical style of architecture, Fry grew to favour the new modernist style, ...

) to restore the building. The building was further renovated by Makins's son, Dwight, who added a

cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...

garden with battlements and

crow-stepped gable A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...

s. The house is now a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. In the early 21st century, the estate was put up for sale. The estate was broken into lots, aiming to attract offers of £3.4 million for the house and immediate grounds, or offers exceeding £7 million for the full estate of . The house had been bought by Elena Baturina, the wife of

Yuri Luzhkov Yuri may refer to: People Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. *Yuri (Japanese name), feminine Japanese given names, including a list o ...

, the former mayor of Moscow, for £5.5m through a shell company called Skymist Holdings Limited, which was also responsible for the extensive renovation.

References

{{Authority control Country houses in Hampshire Basingstoke and Deane