Exbury Leaflet

This leaflet explains what a conservation area is and how it may affect you. It shows the boundary of one of the 37 conservation areas and points out some of the features which make it special.

Exbury

Of the estate villages around the New Forest, it is Exbury which has the most clearly defined and coherent architectural style. Lying just outside the gates of Exbury House, the village was created in the 1820's using buff-coloured local bricks. Further development occurred in the early 20th century, and the village continues to change and adapt in small and subtle ways. Being on the edge of the New Forest and Exbury Gardens, many impressive specimen forest trees dominate the village scene, and provide wooded backdrops to the estate houses. The water tower, providing water to the Gardens, becomes, despite its height, almost a background feature amongst the mass of trees. The village is still largely under the control of the Exbury Estate, and further protected by conservation area status.

The old fishing hamlet was formerly at Lower Exbury near the mouth of the Beaulieu River. In the 1820's the Mitford family created the present village (the former pub was the Mitford Arms) using local bricks from the Exbury and Solent Brick Works by the Solent foreshore. Exbury House was already on the doorstep, and took its present classically styled form soon after the De Rothschilds bought the estate in 1919. Building in the early 20th century added more housing, and by then the village was equipped with school, shop, church and inn for the workforce on the Estate land and in the ornamental Gardens. In 1903 there was a school roll of 110 pupils. The closure of the school and the village inn, and the loss of the shop mirrors more recent trends throughout rural England. However the Exbury Club, bungalows for the elderly and extensions in keeping with the village housing ensure that Exbury continues to develop in tune with the age.