Beaulieu
Never  visit the New Forest and not go down to Beaulieu, which means beautiful place, and the name fits perfectly. Surrounded by the New Forest and the Beaulieu River it is a tranquil little place even though it is host to the New Forests greatest attractions, the National Motor Museum and  the Abbey. The centre of the village is small with its main street being jammed packed with tourists for most of the year searching out the secrets of the forest as well as making a beeline for the Beaulieu Chocolate parlour!! Despite all of this it blends in perfectly with its surroundings


 Palace House Beaulieu
(Photo kindly contributed by William Grierson,Brucklay, Aberdeenshire)

The church is probably unique in that it was once the refectory of the old abbey and it lies in a north - south line. The monks of the abbey used to give their meal times readings from the pulpit which is very rare.

The Montague Arms Hotel

In 1826 William Cobbett once asked the way to the village and ended up in St Leonards and after realising this he wrote it was 'a thousand times finer place than that where the Abbey. . . really stood. . . . the place is one of the finest that ever was seen in this world.'

Nearby is Bucklers Hard which is another museum that is owned by the Beaulieu Estate under the watchful eye of Lord Montagu. A footpath leads from the Montagu Arms in the village to Baileys Hard and from there a path leads on to Bucklers Hard.

From here on is St Leonard's Grange and it is here that one of England's largest tithe barns can be found with a length of 216ft and a width of 60ft! It used to store wool that came from the sheep that grazed on the Beaulieu estate.

The monks of Beaulieu made a large fishpond, Sowley Pond and this can be found to the west , later it was used to provide water for an ironworks which was on the other side of the road and where a forge was in use until 1822.

Lord Montague was a great friend of both Mr Rolls and Mr Royce and his father was a passenger on the liner SS Persia which was torpedoed by a German U-boat when it left Malta in 1915, his secretary/mistress Eleanor Thornton was also with him but though Lord Montague was rescued Eleanor died.

It was Lord Montague who was asked by Mr Rolls and Mr Royce to design a suitable mascot for mounting on the front of their luxury motor cars and it Eleanor Thornton who was chosen as the model of the Winged Lady and she has been remembered ever since then by car owners the world over.

 
Palace House from the pond   Beaulieu souvenir shop

An evening view of Beaulieu High Street
with Palace House in the background
 
The Old Forge   Beaulieu School
 
The Old Schoolhouse with the new school behind   Looking up Beaulieu High Street

A panoramic view of Beaulieu Pond with the Palace House in the background

Beaulieu River
Photo kindly submitted by Jean Harding, Poole, Dorset

PALACE HOUSE
This was built originally in the   14th century as the Great Gatehouse to the abbey. It is set in glorious grounds and gardens with spreading lawns and overlooks the Beaulieu River. The house has been in the hands of the Montagues since 1538, when the estate was purchased after the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, later the first Earl of Southampton.

The first resident owner was Lord Henry Scott who extended it in the 1870's as his family was getting bigger. Sir Arthur Blomfield was the architect and the house that is seen today is a mixture of Victorian Gothic, medieval Gothic and 18th century fornication styles.

The monastic origins are evident everywhere and visitors soon succumb to its friendly atmosphere where they can view portraits and family treasures, also a host of photographs and memorabilia are on show here. Even though Palace House is still a family home and lived in by the present Lord Montague and his family it is open to the public and also has the abbey and motor exhibition as a partnership that seems to blend well together.

More on the Palace House and its other attractions can be found at