WEEKE LOCAL HISTORY

Post Burnett Hitchcock

The house was rented out at the time of the 1911 census and in 1920 the family sold it to John Norton, 5th Baron Grantley, who held the property until 1942 when it was requisitioned to house schoolboys evacuated from war-ravaged Portsmouth. Lord Grantley died in 1943 and his son arranged the purchase of the house in 1945 by the Red Cross. It was used as their Hampshire headquarters before it was finally converted into housing in 2006.

Parts of the lands owned by the Burnett Hitchcock family were sold during Thomas Burnett Hitchcock’s life and some were sold after his death such as Weeke Manor and gardens etc to Baron Grantley. Probably the largest sale was made by Thomas’s son, Basil who sold the Weeke Farm to Winchester City Council in 1935. Presumably the Council made the purchase with the plan to use the land to house Winchester’s expanding population. Due to the Second World War the building of the Weeke Manor Estate did not take place until the 1950s. The Weeke Manor Estate was followed by the Ted Down Estate in the 1960s and the Harestock Estate in the 1970s.

Release 1.0 last update 03/05/19