Beckett Hall

[3]The property was held by William, the Count of Evreux, on behalf of King John who occasionally made residence there.

In return for service, King John granted ownership of the estate to the de Becote family who held the manor until 1424.

It has two storeys and attics, and is in Elizabethan revival style with mullioned windows, gabled roofs and tall chimney-stacks.

Inside are decorative plaster ceilings and fine marble fireplace surrounds, several of them from the 18th century and perhaps from the previous house.

In 1936, following the death the previous year of Charlotte, widow of the 9th Viscount Barrington, the hall and estate were bought by the War Office for use as an artillery training school.

[9] From 1939 it was the home of 133 Officer Cadet Training Unit,[10] and in 1945–6 the American University for US military personnel.

In 2021 the building became the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre after their previous home at Amport House, Hampshire was vacated.

The lake and the China House, c. 1967