THE news that Chute House, a grade II listed building in lower Church Street, is to have fresh occupants in the near future has led to an interest in the 18th century building’s history.

Dipping right back to the mid-1700s the site was occupied by a house that belonged to a Mr Brownrigg.

Then, in 1770, the land was acquired to build a rectory for St Michael’s Church, and by 1773 the large house was completed. The old house, where the vicar, Thomas Sheppard, had been living for some five years, was used as a normal residence until its demise many years later.

The new rectory was built of red brick walling in header bond, with rubbed flat arches over openings and stone cills to the windows. The central doorway stood beneath a large brick porch, while below the house were large cellars.

The house was built on the north side of the land to allow the gardens, which were immense, to be cultivated, and to allow the River Loddon to flow through without any impediment.

Over the years, various vicars came and went. Thomas Sheppard departed in 1814 to make way for James Blatch who was vicar for 50 years.

In 1864 James Millard took over the house until 1890, and during his years as vicar he produced, with the help of Mr Baigent of Winchester, the immense volume about the history of the town in 1888.

In 1891, the Rev Cooper-Smith spent 14 years at the rectory, then Harry Boustead moved in and stayed until 1936. Anthony Chute, whom the house is named after, lived there until 1958, and upon his sudden death, that year, Norman Woodhall took over as vicar.

The house itself was almost untouched over those years, except for the occasional roof repairs and repainting of windows and other parts of the building. Then, when Rev Boustead arrived in 1905, certain things were changed, some for the good and some for the bad.

He organised an annual party in the grounds with a pageant in the evening during the mid-summer period, and this event took place right up until 1966, some 30 years after he had left.

It was during Rev Chute’s residence that a bomb fell onto the rectory lawn in 1940, damaging part of the house, in the Second World War.

During 1967, Rev Woodhall decided that the old rectory was becoming costly to run so he made arrangements to move to an alternative address. The outcome was that in September of that year the building was closed as a residence, and in 1970 the local council acquired it to house several of the local voluntary organisations, converting the rooms for that purpose.

A new rectory was built close by and the vicar moved into that house, while the old rectory was re-named Chute House.

In April 1975, the roof and part of the interior of Chute House was badly damaged in a fire, which did some £30,000 damage.

In June that year a man was charged with starting the blaze, after investigations by the police.

The old rectory is now 229 years old, but it is still suitable for accommodating the local services. May it live for many more years to come.