Wintershill Hall
Item
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Name
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Wintershill Hall
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Dates
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[1800] -
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Location
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Southampton
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Type
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Refuge
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Description
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Wintershill Hall is a stone mansion located in the village of Durley, Hampshire.
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Developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century, by the close of World War II the mansion belonged to James Montefiore, brother of Leonard Montefiore - the chairman of the Committee for the Care of the Concentration Camp Children.
James offered the mansion to Leonard, who accepted, and by October 1945 he had arranged for 128 boys and 28 girls who had survived Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp to be brought to Wintershill to begin their recovery. There, the children received schooling, learnt English, made crafts, and played games. The children particularly enjoyed riding bicycles and freely exploring the gardens, a stark contrast to their horrific experiences in occupied Europe. Staff members including Dr Fridolin Friedmann helped the children to rehabilitate, and recover from illnesses. The children were eventually settled in the UK, with some later moving to America.
Today, the mansion is used as a wedding and event venue, and has been lived in by the owners, the Balfour family, since 1948. To find out more information about the site today, you can visit their website.
Leonard Montefiore