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The coat of arms above the
Hotel entrance
Rhinefield.....
Where some antique oak, itself a grove, spreads its soft umbrage
o'er the sunny glade (William Wordsworth 1793)
Although Rhinefield House has existed in
its present form since the 1880's there have been dwellings on
the site since the "New Forest" was first proclaimed by
William the Conqueror in about 1097. To him the forest
represented an area, conveniently close to his capital of
Winchester, in which he could pursue his favourite sport of
hunting. The creation of a Royal hunting preserve placed the area
under "Forest Law" which curtailed the liberty of the
indigenous peasants and threatened drastic punishment of
interference with the potential quarry of their environment.
Since this law precluded
fencing, which would obstruct the free run of the game. domestic
animals were allowed extensive grazing rights, which exist to
this day. The forest was divided into administrative purposes
into areas and "walks" each supervised by a keeper (an
office rather more exalted than its modern equivalent). Keepers
lived in a series of lodges, of which Rhinefield was the first to
be built in I 709. The use of the Forest as an exclusive hunting
ground waned during the reign of Charles II and the office of
"Keeper of the Walk" became a Grace and Favour
appointment. By 1859 Rhinefield, which had been the site of a
succession keepers' lodges, had become the abode of a Forest
Nurseryman who was responsible for the creation of the Ornamental
Drive and the planting of many conifers in the Rhinefield grounds.
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The main drive up to
Rhinefield House |
In 1877. many of the Crown Lands were "privatised".
Grace and Favour appointments lapsed and vacant lodges were
leased to private individuals. Rhinefield passed to the hands of
the Walker family, which owned Eastwood Colliery, immortalised in
the novels of D.H.Lawrence. In 1885 the only daughter of the
family became engaged to a Lieutenant Munro RN, and her father's
engagement present was £250,000 with which to build a family
home at Rhinefield. After their marriage in I 887 the couple
adopted the name Walker-Munro and supervised the construction of
an impressive countryseat comprising the Great House, a Hunting
Lodge, Stables. Gardener's Bothy and a Gate Lodge. (There was
even enough change left over to build a modest "beach-hut"
which is best known today as the White House at Milford on Sea).
The Great House contains four suites for the four daughters who
were part of the family plan, to which Mother Nature was
unfortunately not privy, since the lady of the house gave birth
to a son in 1889. Her frustration aggravated by the news that she
could not bear another child, was to be a dominant influence on
the family's future. The mother took little part in her
unfortunate son's early upbringing, which was left largely to
servants. After a public school education and service with the
Army in France during World War 1, Major lan Walker-Munro
emigrated to Kenya to become a farmer with financial assistance
from his father. He married in 1919 and had four sons.
Controversy seemed to follow the Walker-Munro family. For example,
they styled themselves "Lord of the Manor at Rhinefield",
a wholly fictitious title which bought them
into conflict with another local family, the Morant's, who were
official Lords of the Manor of Brockenhurst and Rhinefield. Their
mutual antipathy even extended to a refusal to worship in the
same church and, in 1903, the Walker-Munro's decided to build a
church of their own (now St Saviour's by the Water splash in
Brockenhurst). However this venture was short lived as Mrs Walker-Munro
quarrelled with the incumbent, a relative with whom they had
themselves installed in the living, and work ceased. The full
significance of this only became apparent on the death of the
husband in 1923. The church being unfinished, was not licensed
for burials so, rather than let him lie near the Morant's, she
buried him in a copse on Ober farm, which at the time was the
home farm.
Mrs Walker-Munro was now a very wealthy woman and became the
benefactress of many charities, to which she intended to leave
her fortune at the exclusion of her estranged son. However, even
this plan misfired. Having revoked one will and
not yet signed its replacement, she died, effectively in testate
and the unthinkable happened - the whole estate passed to her son.
Frustrated to the end, she joined her husband in the Ober Farm in
1934. Rhinefield remained in the possession of her
family until after the death of her son in 1950. when crippling
death duties forced his widow to dispose of it.
There followed a period of uncertainty for Rhinefield, during
which several schemes for conversion to flats or a Hotel
foundered for one reason or another, and the one relatively
successful venture was a private school which occupied the
house for ten years. In 1972 Mr Oliver Cutts, who made
considerable progress in refurbishing the house and grounds, but
whose plans did not win approval of the local planning authority
bought the freehold. So in 1982 ownership passed to the Nicholas
Hotels whose plans to develop Rhinefield into a hotel with
conference facilities and several luxury apartments to be leased
on a timeshare basis was successful. This was followed in 1989 by
transfer of ownership to Richard Branson (Virgin Hotels), where
an upgrading programme was begun. The oldest part of the house
appears to be the fire-back in the central Grand Hall, which
bears the date 1653. The previous lodge was demolished to make
way for the present house, although the materials were carefully
preserved and used in the construction of the present hunting
lodge.
The Great House
designed by architects Romaine-Walker and Tanner of London
incorporates a mixture of styles, both externally and internally,
reflecting the personal tastes which the Walker-Munro's acquired
in their travels. Thus Tudor combines with Gothic architecture
while, inside, the Great Hall has many features of the
Westminster Hall and the masters smoking room reproduces the
splendour of the Alhambra Palace in Granada. Opinions of this
mixture vary, but there can be no doubting the craftsmanship,
which went into the construction. The house abounds with supreme
examples of the art of wood carvers, stone masons, sculptors,
plasterers, coppersmiths and even loo makers!
The Alhambra room
alone took the Spanish workmen, who were bought over specifically
for the purpose, two years to build. Other notable features are
the Armada
carving by Aumonnier with a surrounding by Grinling Gibbons, a
ceiling canvas by Fragonnard, and the magnificent wood panelling
throughout the house and the Orchestration, which occupies the
organ loft in the Grand Hall.
Most of the original features of the house have been retained
during the refurbishment and conversion. The Armada is now the
Restaurant while the Alhambra forms an extension to the Armada.
The principle bedrooms of the house are now two
luxurious suites, and the timeshare apartments which occupy the
east wing which formerly comprised of the daughter's and guest
suites and servant quarters. Parts of the original cellars are
incorporated into the leisure complex which includes an
indoor plunge pool, sauna, gym, Jacuzzi, etc. The hotel
accommodation occupies a new wing to the west of the house. The
grounds of Rhinefield are also a mixture, the type of informal
woodland in which native forest trees jostle with more
spectacular imports such as the giant redwoods, and the formal
terraces, lawns and water features reminiscent of the great
French and Italian gardens. Part of the refurbishment programme
has been the reinstatement of the gardens to their original
splendour, helped and encouraged by the Hampshire Garden Trust
who fortunately have plans and photographs of the original layout.
The present owners. Arcadian Hotels, are confident that, with the
completion of the planned programme of refurbishment and
modification, they will have achieved the twin aims of restoring
Rhinefield House to a condition worthy of its magnificent New
Forest setting and providing unrivalled facilities for both
business and pleasure in luxurious surroundings.
Rhinefield House, Brockenhurst. The names means Badger Wood and
is set in the midst of beautiful Crown Forest land and is
approached from the main A35 road, Southampton to Bournemouth, by
the delightful Ornamental Drive famous for its
colourful Azaleas and Rhododendrons. A large Master Keeper's
Lodge stood in Rhinefield Walk, and in 1628 the records show that
the Earl of Holland authorised a sum of money to the Woodward (H.M
Keeper of the Timbers) to carry out work
on the Great Rhinefield Lodge as it was then called. In 1789,
Colonel Haywwood, Deputy Warden, occupied the lodge and spent £530.00
on improvements. Eventually Lieutenant Walker-Munro R.N turned
the old nursery into pleasure grounds
and built the present lovely mansion.
THE ALHAMBRA SMOKING ROOM
The Alhambra Room, of breathtaking beauty, is an exact copy from
the Alhambra Palace in Granada, recreated here by Mabel Walker-Munro
as a Christmas present for her husband. For during their
honeymoon he had so admired the then ruined Alhambra that she was
so determined to recreate this room for his own private use as a
smoking room. She therefore instructed her architects to set out
and gather materials, including onyx from Persia and coppersmiths
of Moorish origin who were capable of recreating, in England,
this unique room. High in the dome one sees beautiful stars in
the
Venetian glass forming the Star of David. One could liken the
vast dome itself to the breast feathers of a peacock. Below is a
bronze grille. This was once part of the first air-conditioning
of the house, which could either blow hot or cold air, pumped by
the great gas engines. The walls of beaten copper with a gesso
finish bear the inscription "There is no God but God and
Mohammed is his prophet", "God loves all men and loves
a true believer" and "The heavens and the earth testify
to the magnificence of God". The beautiful mosaic floors
with onyx pillars tell the story of how the great and good Caliph
Harmoum Al Rashid of Baghdad, by making magic from the pentacle (which
is seen in the centre of the floor), rescued his twin daughter
from the clutches of Ahnzar the Devil who had turned them into
flamingos. The magnificent copper and
bronze lantern is the full Ruaiyat of Omar Khayyam, both in cameo
and intaglio, and on the base a comet whirling through space
shows how God created the world, for if one looks, there are six
appendages. In six days God created the world and on the seventh
he rested. Opposite the doors, the tapestry work of the fine
Kalim prayer carpets every stitch a prayer. The doors to the room
are inlaid with brass telling the same story as is told in the
floor. The tiles on the walls are hand cut and hand burnt and
each show flowers and other symbols of religious significance.
BROCKENHURST
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