Six miles outside Basingstoke on the B3400 towards Overton is a large hotel called Oakley Hall. This grand historic building has a long history.

The hall was built in 1795 but the site’s origins date back to 1299 when, under the manor of Deane, the tenants were Robert and John Atte Hall, whose family originated from Worcestershire. After several other tenants over the years the next recorded owner was George Wither in 1620 who was Surveyor General of the Royal Woods and Forests and directed the building of the Serpentine in Hyde Park from 1727.

In the closing years of the eighteenth century the Bramston family acquired the estate and in 1795 Wither Bramston demolished the hall and rebuilt it, making extensive alterations to the grounds, and adding five other manors and the patronage of two churches to his property.

This increased the size of his estate dramatically.

In the mid nineteenth century further modifications were made to the gardens, and by the end of the century two lodges were added.

Jane Austen was a regular visitor, living in nearby Steventon she often walked to the Hall to visit her friends, Wither and Mary Bramston and his sister Augusta.

She mentioned in letters that she ate sandwiches with mustard, liked Wither’s beer, and admired the window transparencies that Mary had created. This was reflected in her novel Mansfield Park in later years when she described window transparencies in Fanny Price’s East Room.

She shopped in the village of Oakley and mentions in one of her letters that she walked to the shop with her friend Mary Bramston to buy ten pairs of worsted stockings and a shift.

Although the Austens did not own a carriage they were often invited to travel with their close neighbours the Bramstons when attending functions and balls in Basingstoke and beyond.

In 1933 the house and estate were sold and shortly after were under the ownership of Hilsea College, a mixed school predominately for the children of Naval officers, and remained thus until 1992.

Pupil Alastair Blair, who attended between the ages of eight and eleven, recollects playing rounders and other sports on the large lawn at the rear of the house and also the annual Summer Fete where the boys demonstrated gymnastics and the girls country dancing, but he was surprised that the boys and the girls alike had to undertake knitting!

A main classroom block was a row of four Nissen huts enclosed within the four walls of the quadrangle which were very hot in Summer and freezing in Winter when they were heated with Paraffin stoves.

In 1993 Forest Care took over the management of the 315 acre estate and initially the Hall was used as a care home. Eventually in 2013 a separate home was purpose built in the former farm complex buildings, called Oak Lodge, which quickly gained the reputation of being one of the top 1% in the country for quality and care. In 2019 the care team reached the finals in the Caring UK awards and the National Care Awards, earning Grace Adan the award for Manager of The Year 2019.

The elegant 4 star hotel now has fifty bedrooms a conference centre and wedding facilities.