Broadlands

Broadlands is a country house near Romsey in Southampton ( England).

Originally, the site owned by the Abbey of Romsey. After the dissolution of the monasteries it belonged successively Sir Francis Fleming, the St. Barbe family and finally Humphrey Sydenham. When he lost large parts of its assets as a result of the South Sea Bubble, he had the property in 1736 to sell the Temple family, whose leader since 1723 had the Irish title of Viscount Palmerston.

In 1767 this, the manor house of the famous architect and landscape architect Capability Brown fundamentally transform in the Palladian style. At this time, the well-known park was created. 1788 added the eastern front portico and domed hall Browns son Henry Holland. For the decorative plaster work Joseph Rose drew the Elder responsible, who was considered capacity in this area.

Middle of the 19th century lived Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, who was from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865 British Prime Minister, in Broadlands. He eventually sold the estate to his longtime friend and sometime secretary, a liberal politician, Evelyn Ashley. His son Wilfrid William Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple was from 1924 to 1929 Minister of Transport. 1901 came in Broadlands his daughter Edwina to the world, one of the richest women of her time. In 1922 she brought Broadlands as a dowry in marriage to Lord Louis Mountbatten.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the estate was the seat of the Mountbatten family a center of social life in Britain. 1947 spent Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on their honeymoon Broadlands, 1981 Prince Charles and Princess Diana lived there for some weeks.

Current residents is Norton Knatchbull Louis, 8th Baron Brabourne, a grandson of 1979 murdered by the IRA Lord Mountbatten.