Minley Manor

The current manor house was built in the French style by Henry Clutton between 1858 and 1860 for Raikes Currie, a partner in Glyn Mills' Bank and a member of the Currie family. Through this bank, they were early financiers of South Australia, a colony developed for the British government, and thus had some ties related to slavery and the colony.{{cite web|first=CJ |last=Coventry|title=Links in the Chain: British slavery, Victoria and South Australia|publisher=Before/Now|volume=1|year=2019|url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:23672/datastreams/CONTENT/content|access-date=31 March 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/site/2301 |publisher=English Heritage|title= Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130609021025/http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/site/2301|archive-date=9 June 2013|url-status=dead}} During the next three years attention turned to the estate, with the creation of formal gardens around the house and a kitchen garden. The remainder was landscaped as pleasure gardens by F W Meyer,{{cite web|url=http://www.parksandgardens.org/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,person/id,928/Itemid,292/ |title=F W Meyer|publisher=Parks and Gardens|access-date=13 April 2018}} working with the horticulturists Veitch & Sons of Exeter. On Raikes' death in 1881, his son Bertram Wodehouse Currie continued the development, employing Messrs Veitch to lay out a Winter Garden and extensions to the pleasure gardens, which included Hawley Lake, in the 1880s. The house was the birthplace of the British diplomat Sir Reginald Hoare in 1882.{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33897|title= Reginald Hoare|publisher= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|access-date=13 April 2018}} Raikes' grandson Laurence Currie built a water tower, created a new complex of walled gardens and further extended the ornamental planting and woodland.

The property passed to the War Office in 1934, initially for the Senior Wing of the nearby Staff College, Camberley.{{cite web|url=https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1949-03-10a.1542.3 |title= Number of Land Forces Army Estimates, 1949–50|publisher=Hansard|access-date=13 April 2018}} It was used by the Royal Engineers, from 1971, as a brigade headquarters and then, from 1990, as an officers' mess for units at Gibraltar Barracks, which are located on the opposite side of the A327 Minley Road.

In 2013, as part of the RSME-PPP project, the Holdfast consortium built a new officers' mess on the Gibraltar Barracks site. The Ministry of Defence part-funded this project from sale of the manor{{cite web|url=http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/57BD81D4-ED70-4F94-89DA-04CEBDC8DDF8/0/heritage_rpt_200911.pdf |publisher=Ministry of Defence|title= Heritage Report 2009|access-date=13 April 2018}} which was sold to an international investor in November 2014.{{cite web|url=https://www.insidermedia.com/insider/southeast/128075-historic-minley-manor-sold-international-investor|title=Historic Minley Manor sold to international investor|date=18 November 2014|publisher=Insider Media|access-date=31 March 2018}} The international investor submitted planning permission to change the use of the manor in to a five star hotel, spa, conference centre and Chinese culture centre.{{cite web|url=https://publicaccess.hart.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=PUDGRWHZ0GB00&activeTab=summary |publisher=Hart Borough Council|title= Planning Application 19/01539/PREAPP|access-date=10 November 2020}}

On the 22 October 2018 a large fire engulfed the water tower, part of the Minley Manor estate.{{cite web|url=https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/hampshire-news/live-updates-fire-minley-manor-15315485 |publisher=Get Surrey|title= Crews remain at Minley Manor following huge overnight fire|access-date=10 November 2020}} The owners of the estate, Strong Property (UK) Ltd, applied for planning permission to restore the tower in December 2019; however the request was rejected in April 2020 on the basis that the original iron water tank would not have been retained.{{cite web|url=https://publicaccess.hart.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q214TDHZG7500&activeTab=summary |publisher=Hart Borough Council|title= Planning Application 19/02704/LBC|access-date=1 January 2021}}

One of the main features is a 600-metre Wellingtonia tree avenue, which was shown off to good effect in the 1969 movie Mosquito Squadron, where the manor house played the part of a French château used as a prisoner of war camp and factory for the V-1 flying bomb. The manor was also used as a location in the 2007 Victorian fantasy movie Stardust, starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer.{{cite web|url=http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/EstateAndEnvironment/LightsCameraActionModProvidesMovieBackdrops.htm|title=Lights Camera Action! MOD provides movie backdrops|publisher=Defence News|access-date=13 April 2018|archive-date=4 September 2006|archive-url=https://archive.today/20060904184013/http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/EstateAndEnvironment/LightsCameraActionModProvidesMovieBackdrops.htm|url-status=live}}

The manor was used as the location for the external shots of Three Gables aka the titular Crooked House in the 2017 film Crooked House.{{cite web|url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1869347/locations/?ref_=tt_dt_loc|title=Crooked House Locations|publisher=IMDB|access-date=5 January 2025}}

The feature film Detective Pikachu, released in 2019, used the training bridge, also in the Manor's grounds, as the setting for the pivotal car crash.{{cite web|url=http://www.british-film-locations.com/scene-2ky/Pokemon-Detective-Pikachu-2019 |publisher=British Film Locations|title= Detective Pickachu Locations|access-date=1 January 2021}} The grounds of Minley Manor featured in the Netflix movie, Enola Holmes, released in 2020.{{cite web|url=https://www.sceen-it.com/sceen/4452/Enola-Holmes/Minley-Manor|publisher=Screen It|title= Minley Manor, Enola Holmes (2020)|access-date=1 January 2021}}

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• [http://www.holdfasttraining.co.uk/ Holdfast Consortium]
• [https://www.minleymanorevents.co.uk/ Minley Manor]

Category:Country houses in Hampshire

Category:Staff College, Camberley