Test Valley Country Houses

Enjoy exclusive tours of two contrasting but equally impressive country houses, each with its own wow factor.

Enjoy a detailed owner-guided tour of Grade II* Redenham Park House, built in 1784 for Sir Charles Pollen, a classical mansion faced with Bath stone with a central porch and coupled Ionic columns. The house and its parkland setting have been described as the perfect background for a Jane Austen novel. The house has a classical design of plain Greek style, square with a wing at the north side. The house retains its original palatial appearance with entrance hall, large staircase and main reception rooms with plasterwork, door cases and fireplaces. Our tour will include the sitting room, billiard room and drawing room. The beautiful gardens were designed, in a series of separate areas, by the current owner in 1976, an eminent garden designer. 

Biddesden House © Chris Talbot / Biddesden - Horse and House

Later, discover Grade I Biddesden House, built by the retired General John Richmond Webb in 1711. The house is built in Flemish bond brick with stone dressings. The architect is unknown, perhaps Webb himself. It has two stories plus attic, seven bays to its south front and both sides, and domestic quarters to the rear. At the north-east a turret carries a bell brought by Webb from the 1708 siege of Lille. Inside is a double height entrance hall, lit by three round windows at first floor height, and there is mid-18th century panelling in several rooms. Pevsner describes the house as “remarkable for its place in English architecture”. On the west front, Dora Carrington painted a blank window in 1931 with a trompe-l'oeil cook, cat and canary behind glazing bars. Richard Pym painted two more on the east front in 1935, representing the Regency period.

Tickets £90 including a two-course lunch at the Shears Inn, Collingbourne Ducis. Lunch options to be made available to attendees in October 2025.

Header image: © Stephen Richards / Redenham House, Appleshaw