Introduction
Broadlands has been a part of English history for centuries....home to statesmen and men of action....host to royalty and the brilliant, powerful and celebrated of their time.
Broadlands stands in spacious parkland in a landscape which is typically English. The River Test, one of the finest trout and salmon rivers in Europe, flows for over four miles through the Estate. However, few appreciate that the character of the English countryside is really shaped by man. 'Capability' Brown's dictum was that 'Nature abhors a straight line'. His skill in applying it can be seen in the views of the River Test. In Capability Brown's opinion, a house was a place in which to live comfortably. His influence here, and a measure of his genius, is the fact that with all its grandeur and Palladian elegance, Broadlands expresses a warmth that few other historic homes possess.
The fact that Broadlands is closely associated with a tradition of public service gives it a special place in our history. It was Churchill who said, "We shape our buildings and then they shape us". If that is true, Britain owes a debt of gratitude both to the men who shaped Broadlands and to Broadlands itself for the public men it has helped to shape.