The Grange Hampshire

About the venue

A neo-classical mansion and family estate near Alresford, home to The Grange Festival and an English sparkling wine vineyard. Weddings use the house, its porticos or the smaller Abbotstone Barn, and the estate also hosts business retreats, milestone birthdays and stag or hen weekends with up to 20 bedrooms.

Winston Churchill met General Eisenhower in the former Picture Gallery at The Grange in 1944, when the house was a headquarters for the US 9th Army. Decades later Baz Luhrmann and a crew of 150 filled the entire main house with flowers for an H&M and Erdem collaboration.

The neo-classical mansion near Alresford grew from a 1660s brick house. William Wilkins remodelled it in the early 19th century. The Baring banking family later more than doubled its size, adding the orangery that now holds a 570-seat theatre used by The Grange Festival.

Inside, the four principal ground-floor reception rooms are mostly unfurnished and left in varying states of romantic distress. Three have painted floors on opera themes, and the largest takes about 200 standing or 100 seated. French windows open onto porticoes and terraces facing the ornamental lakes.

Abbotstone Barn is the estate's second venue, a purpose-built space of 20 by 5.5 metres that seats up to 70 for meetings and 60 for weddings. It sits beside Abbotstone Farm House, which has a big Aga kitchen, three living rooms with working fireplaces, a summer pool and a tennis court.

Across the estate there are up to 20 bedrooms in houses and cottages, including Lake House Cottage above the Lower Lake. Parkland, woodland, watermeadows, lakes and farmland are all available for hire.

The family planted a vineyard on a south-facing slope above the River Itchen in 2011. It now has 52,000 vines and a winery, and its sparkling wine has been named Best English Sparkling Wine by Country Life.

Food comes from in-house caterer Becka Cooper, who also runs a bounce class at Abbotstone Farm, or from your own chosen caterer.

Neo-classical mansion near Alresford with porticos and lakes

Churchill met Eisenhower here in 1944

Largest reception room holds 200 standing or 100 seated

Abbotstone Barn for weddings of 60 and meetings of 70

Up to 20 bedrooms across the estate's houses and cottages

Home of The Grange Festival and a 570-seat theatre

Estate vineyard with 52,000 vines and its own winery

Business retreats, stag and hen weekends and milestone parties