The house is located close to the River Itchen and Monks Brook and the manor's previous owners include the Willis-Fleming family of nearby North Stoneham and Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling.

The tower was deemed unsuitable for continued use and in 2004 the University submitted plans to demolish it with the intention of converting the original house into a conference venue and building new blocks of flats on the remaining landscaped gardens.

[1] A charter dating from 990 relates to the manor of South Stoneham and during building works in the area immediately around the current house and grounds, archaeological evidence of a Saxon settlement was found.

The original parish of South Stoneham covered more than 8,000 acres (32.37 km2; 12.50 sq mi), and extended along the eastern side of the River Itchen from the site of the present day Eastleigh in the north to just above Northam Bridge in the south, and from Swaythling to the outskirts of the original town of Southampton on the western side of the river; it included the tithings of Allington, Barton, Pollack, Shamblehurst, and Portswood.

[5] Beckford died at South Stoneham House at the age of 86 on 25 June 1854,[7][17] and Thomas Willis Fleming (second son of John) moved in.

[3][5][7] Included in the sale catalogue issued on 23 November 1875 was Wood Mill (still standing and operating as an outdoor activities centre as of 2013), Gascon Cottage, and land for building.

Half an hour later the warden came round to all the bedrooms to check that everyone was in bed.By 1924, there was distinct pressure on space in the halls of residence, and it was clear that more rooms were needed.

On 9 January 1986, Southampton City Council created the Itchen Valley Conservation Area which includes South Stoneham House and Lodge.

In 2002 the accommodation in the tower was criticised - partly due to overcrowding, but also regarding the state of the building itself, with inhabitants living in what the Daily Telegraph described as "damp and squalid conditions".

Physical disassembly would be hugely expensive, while explosives could not be used due to the proximity of private houses and the Grade II* listed[28] original building.

[29] In 2004 the University commissioned a firm of architects to create a listed building consent application to enable the tower and the kitchen and dining hall complex to be demolished.

The application stated that the demolition was part of a "master plan" which "seeks to establish the reinstatement of South Stoneham House to a standard befitting its Listed Building status.

The key part of the master plan is to refurbish and change the use of the Listed Building [to enable it to function] as a conference facility."

[30][31] A 2007 promotional leaflet revealed that architecture firm Poole Philips had recently completed a design for the "restoration and enhancement" of South Stoneham House to be used as a conference centre.

[34] The University put the site up for sale on a long leasehold basis in 2015,[34] with the sales literature describing the property as a "large, underdeveloped site extending to 6.37 acres (2.58 hectares) in a highly attractive landscaped setting" and featuring an image depicting new blocks of student accommodation in place of the tower and on the opposite side of the original house.

[35] The literature indicated the site was "allocated for student accommodation use within the UDP with potential for 393 ensuite, purpose built bed spaces" and made no mention of the previous conference centre plans.

In January 2019 the University announced a competition for architects to transform the site to provide accommodation, study spaces and communal social areas for 400 resident students with an aim to complete the project by 2022.

The competition also invited architects to bid for work on the main Highfield Campus as part of the institution's 10-year estates development programme.

[36] Entries for the competition closed in February 2019 and it was reported in April that year that the University had appointed five architects to a £3m framework to support the programme, having received eight bids.

The covering letter for the planning application stated that architecture firm Allies and Morrison had been commissioned by the University "to develop a Masterplan strategy for the Wessex Lane Student Village... with South Stoneham Manor House at its heart.

"[39] The University appointed Keltbray to carry out the demolition and announced that this was due to start in January 2022 with the expectation that it would be completed by the middle of the year.

[43] EWH Gifford and Partners were the structural engineers, while the general contractors were a company called Trollope and Colls Limited.

The tower, on the other hand, is concrete built and finished – a strikingly simple design of cross walls and facing panels which, in structural and elevational treatment, strongly suggests an industrialized building system: so much so, in fact, that it serves as a pointer to what system building can mean in terms of good architecture.The tower block measured 49 by 56 feet (15 by 17 m) and rested on a concrete raft 2 feet 6 inches (76 cm) thick on a stiff clay subsoil.

[42] The estate was landscaped some time after 1722 by Lancelot "Capability" Brown[10][44] and Kelly's Directory of 1915 described the house as being "pleasantly seated".

However 100 years earlier the estate was more extensive, being described thus in The Times on 21 June 1815: A highly valuable and very compact FREEHOLD ESTATE, comprising the manor or reputed manor of South Stoneham, and the capital Mansion, called South Stoneham-house, most delightfully situate on the banks of the Itchen river, distant only two miles and a half from Southampton, with offices of every description for a family of respectability, gardens, pleasure grounds, hot houses, ice house, sheets of water, fish ponds, and 360 customary acres of arable, meadow, and wood land, about 40 acres of which form a beautiful paddock, in which the mansion stands; the remainder divided into a farm, with farm house and buildings ...[7]In 1839 the estate was described as not particularly extensive, but notable for its groups of "patrician" elm trees.

wide, with a silvered plate glass screen at the further end, giving an appearance of greater length, and stocked, with some choice creapers.

THE PRINCIPAL STAIRCASE with spiral balusters and Gallery Landing, leads to TWO NOBLE DRAWING ROOMS, divided by folding doors, one being 20-ft.

6-in., with moulded cornices, distempered walls, woodwork grained maple, enamelled slate chimney-piece in imitation of Sienna marble, and polished register Stove.

[7] When last recorded the Entrance Hall was entered through a screen of two fluted pillars and pilasters with Corinthian capitals which supported a beam with detailed plasterwork.

The ceiling of the hall was painted in what Pevsner calls 'a classical design with Adamish or Spanish qualities' [49] with pelicans, trumpets and swags.