Amport House, currently the British Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre (AFCC), is a manor house (at grid reference SU296440) in the village of Amport, near Andover, Hampshire.
The current house was built near the village of Amport in 1857 by the Marquess of Winchester and replaced two earlier houses built on the site. The gardens were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and planted by Gertrude Jekyll. The last of the family to reside at Amport was Henry Paulet, 16th Marquess of Winchester, marquess from 1899 to 1962.
During World War II the house was taken over and used as the headquarters of Royal Air Force Maintenance Command. In 1962 the Royal Air Force Chaplains' School moved to Amport House from Dowdswell Court in Cheltenham. The School, which had included a Royal Navy chaplain staff member, became the tri-service Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre in 1996 on the closure of the regimental Headquarters and depot of the Royal Army Chaplains' Department at Bagshot Park.
A converted stable block of the house also holds the The Museum of Army Chaplaincy.
The house is built in an Elizabethan style and is now a Grade II listed building, with the interior containing several Elizabethan features including some intricate plasterwork. The gardens were designed by Edwin Lutyens and contain ornate water features, yew hedging, topiary and a knot garden incorporating the coat of arms of Winchester. There is also a gatehouse and a pleached avenue of lime trees, believed to be the longest such avenue in the United Kingdom.
Famous quotes containing the word house:
“A house means a family house, a place specially meant for putting children and men in so as to restrict their waywardness and distract them from the longing for adventure and escape they’ve had since time began.”
—Marguerite Duras (b. 1914)