The Vyne, Near Basingstoke, Hampshire

After lunch at Milestones Living Museum, we boarded our coach for the short drive to The Vyne - a National Trust Property nearby.

The present building was built circa 1500 to 1510 and stands on the site of a medieval manor house of the same name.

I have visited The Vyne a couple of times in the past, so I do know it fairly well. It is a fairly modest property standing in naturalised grounds. There is a walled garden which on my first visit several years ago was just starting to be cultivated. On my second visit it was mostly laid out to vegetable gardens and we were able to walk through the large glasshouse. Sady this time I saw some of the vegetable beds had been left to grass and we were not allowed into the glasshouse, but this was probably due to it being full of seedings.

Summerhouse

The Hundred Guinea Oak -is thought to be more than 650 years old. Legend says it was given this

name after the then owner of TheVyne, John Chute, refused to sell it for £100 to a naval agent looking for trees to build ships for the Battle of Trafalgar. The agent went back the following day and offered one hundred guineas. According to diary entries written at the time, Chute said "Any tree that increases in value by £5 overnight is too valuable an investment to lose".