Audleys Wood Hotel
Location: near Basingstoke, Hampshire
Nestling in the beautiful Hampshire countryside, yet ideally located near the M3 & M4, Audleys Wood Hotel is surrounded by lush woodland and seven acres of grounds.
Audleys Wood has always been a much loved home. Created in the Gothic Renaissance style, Audleys Wood was built in the mid-1880s and today still retains many of the original features such as grand fireplaces, stained glass windows and wood panelled lounges. Its centrepiece is the Conservatory Restaurant with its high vaulted ceiling.
For more information about the hotel please visit their web site
Saturday 5th October 2024
† These prices are based on two people sharing a standard double or twin bedroom
History
Audleys Wood was first mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, known then as 'Oddele', the name gradually evolved and by 1578 became known as 'Odlease'.
Described as a gothic renaissance mansion, the first known reference to the main building is found in the local newspaper dated August 28th 1880, it mentioned 'Thomas Pain of Audleys'. Thomas was a former mayor of Salisbury as well as being a director of the Bloodstock auctioneers, Messrs Tattersalls.
He died in 1885 and the executors of his will sold the Estate the following year to Mr. William Bradshaw, a former resident of Bishopstoke, Hampshire. His first wife, Elizabeth Chandless, died as a result of a horse riding accident. He re-married in 1892. His new bride was Maud Hamilton Barclay.
In 1900 Henry Adolphus Simonds, owner of the H&G Simonds brewery of Reading, purchased the estate. Childless, but determined to secure the future of his company, he invited his nephew, Louis De Luze Simonds, to take up a position within the company. The son of Frederick Simonds and Sophie De Luze, decended from the noble De Luze family, Louis ensured the survival of the Simonds brewery using his family ties to the wine merchants of Bordeaux.
During the Second World War the Simonds family relocated to Mortimer. They leased Audleys Wood to Viscount Camrose, the editor and proprietor of The Daily Telegraph, whose Hackwood estate - across the road from Audleys Wood - became a Canadian military hospital.
In commemoration of the many great statesmen and journalists who met with Viscount Camrose at Audleys Wood, there is always a current copy of The Daily Telegraph in the lounge.
In the autumn of 1945 both families returned to their respective homes, but after 6 years, Eric Simonds sold the Audleys Wood Estate. Viscount Camrose purchased Pensdell farm and the surrounding woodlands . The house and gardens were sold to the county council, who ran Audleys Wood as a home for the elderly and a workshop for the disabled.
And so it continued for 35 years until its splendid, most sensitive conversion to the Audleys Wood Hotel in 1989.