Amport Park, Amport, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Amport was held as a seat of the Paulet family from the mid-17th century when it was acquired from the Goldston family. The first Paulet to own Amport was Lord Henry, the fourth son of William, fourth Marquess of Winchester and brother to the fifth Marquess, John, who died defending the chief family seat of Basing House (see the description of this site elsewhere in the Register). On Lord Henry’s death in 1672, he was succeeded by his son Francis and then by his grandson Norton, during whose ownership Amport is clearly shown as a country house with a formal approach (Taylor, 1759). Following the death of the eleventh Marquess, Norton’s youngest son, George Paulet, inherited the title in 1794 and made Amport the principal family seat. He was probably responsible for laying out the park south of the house as far as the Portway, as recorded on Greenwood’s county map of 1826, the house then standing to the north-east of the present house and laid out on the west side by 1839 (Tithe map) with pleasure grounds containing long walks and garden features. By 1846 (Enclosure map) further land had been acquired by the Paulet family and the park had been extended south of the Portway, and in 1857 the fourteenth Marquess commissioned the architect William Burn to build the present house. In 1919 the Paulet family sold Amport and the estate was split up. The house was purchased by Captain Philipson and then sold on in 1922 to Colonel Sofer-Whitburn, whose commission to Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) to remodel the gardens resulted in the present water terraces, areas of which were planted by Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932). Amport was requisitioned for military use in 1939 and finally purchased by the Ministry of Defence in 1958. Subsequent sales of land in the early 1960s have left the Ministry in ownership of the house and immediate gardens and pleasure grounds. For many years they were occupied by the RAF Chaplains' School until this was succeeded by the tri-service Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre. The parkland is now (1998) privately owned farmland.