Beaurepaire is a country estate near Bramley

Bramley, Hampshire

Bramley is a village and parish in Hampshire, UK. In the 2001 census it had a population of 3,348. It has a village shop, bakery, estate agency, pub and a railway station...

 in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

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History

Beaurepaire was owned by the Brocas family from Aquitaine

Aquitaine

Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...

 for approximately 500 years.

In the 14th century, Sir Bernard Brocas was Edward III's Master of the Horse

Master of the Horse

The Master of the Horse was a position of varying importance in several European nations.-Magister Equitum :...

. In 1369, Edward permitted Bernard to enclose the parkland and create the Beaurepaire estate. As a knight, Bernard was favoured by Edward, the Black Prince

Edward, the Black Prince

Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England....

, and accompanied him during the Battle of Poitiers

Battle of Poitiers (1356)

The Battle of Poitiers was fought between the Kingdoms of England and France on 19 September 1356 near Poitiers, resulting in the second of the three great English victories of the Hundred Years' War: Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt....

. Bernard later became Chief Surveyor and Sovereign Warden of the parks at Winchester College

Winchester College

Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...

; he was acquainted with the college's founder, William of Wykeham

William of Wykeham

William of Wykeham was Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of England, founder of Winchester College, New College, Oxford, New College School, Oxford, and builder of a large part of Windsor Castle.-Life:...

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Manor house

An early manor house at Beaurepaire is thought to be a Georgian

Georgian architecture

Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...

 sham castle built in 1777. This has largely vanished, but the moat

Moat

A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...

 – enclosing approximately 1 acre (0.404686 ha) of gardens – is extant. The Georgian building was accompanied by a Tudor wing with hood mould

Hood mould

In architecture, a hood mould, also called a label mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater...

ed windows and red brick diapering

Diapering

Diaper is any of a wide range of decorative patterns used in a variety of works of art, such as stained glass, heraldic shields, architecture, silverwork etc. Its chief use is in the enlivening of plain surfaces.-Etymology:...

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Recent history

The estate was sold by the Brocas family in 1873. In 1942, the building was largely destroyed by fire. The Tudor 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

Roger Makins, 1st Baron Sherfield

Roger Mellor Makins, 1st Baron Sherfield, GCB, GCMG, FRS , was a British diplomat who served as British Ambassador to the United States from 1953 to 1956....

 who lived in nearby Sherfield. Makins commissioned Tom Bird (an architect who worked at the offices of Maxwell Fry

Maxwell Fry

Edwin Maxwell Fry, CBE, RA, FRIBA, FRTPI, known as Maxwell Fry , was an English modernist architect of the middle and late 20th century, known for his buildings in Britain, Africa and India....

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

Cloister

A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...

 garden with battlements and crow-stepped gable

Crow-stepped gable

A Stepped gable, Crow-stepped gable, or Corbie step is a stair-step type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building...

s.

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 753 acres (304.7 ha).