Hursley House, Winchester
Discussion
mikeveal said:
Well I promised pictures of the safes in Hursley house. One of my friends who still works there has come up with the goods.
On the ground floor of Hursley House, the Merdon Room is a wood panelled room overlooking the lawn. Just inside the door are these two panels:
Both upper and lower panels open to reveal safes. To give an idea of scale, the door to the Merdon room is waaaay bigger than a standard 6'6" door. A tall man would struggle to reach the upper keyhole.
The upper wooden panel is locked. But the lower panel can be opened.
I'm assured that there is an identical safe behind the upper panel.
More photos of the lower safe:
These are two of the three safes / strongrooms in Hursley House. The third is in the office of the Museum curator, in the basement.
I'm told that this is a walk in strongroom, the strongroom door is permanently open. Obviously as it's in someone's office and their office door is locked, I can't post photos of this.
Now let's talk about keys... The strongroom in the basement is open, so that's clearly not the one Blown2CV is talking about and if you saw the basement you'd agree that none of the rooms.fit the description of "fancy".
The two safes in the Merdon room could be the ones Blown2CV is talking about. One is behind a locked wooden panel, the other is pictured above. I have it on very good authority that security do have the keys for both of these safes.
So I'm afraid that the story of a locked safe/strong room in Hursley House for which there is no known key appears to be busted.
excellent sleuthing!! I didn't know there were multiple!! Great pics.On the ground floor of Hursley House, the Merdon Room is a wood panelled room overlooking the lawn. Just inside the door are these two panels:
Both upper and lower panels open to reveal safes. To give an idea of scale, the door to the Merdon room is waaaay bigger than a standard 6'6" door. A tall man would struggle to reach the upper keyhole.
The upper wooden panel is locked. But the lower panel can be opened.
I'm assured that there is an identical safe behind the upper panel.
More photos of the lower safe:
These are two of the three safes / strongrooms in Hursley House. The third is in the office of the Museum curator, in the basement.
I'm told that this is a walk in strongroom, the strongroom door is permanently open. Obviously as it's in someone's office and their office door is locked, I can't post photos of this.
Now let's talk about keys... The strongroom in the basement is open, so that's clearly not the one Blown2CV is talking about and if you saw the basement you'd agree that none of the rooms.fit the description of "fancy".
The two safes in the Merdon room could be the ones Blown2CV is talking about. One is behind a locked wooden panel, the other is pictured above. I have it on very good authority that security do have the keys for both of these safes.
So I'm afraid that the story of a locked safe/strong room in Hursley House for which there is no known key appears to be busted.
However - it's what i got told.
Edited by Blown2CV on Thursday 16th March 10:44
This is just up the road from me too and have gone up in the past to walk around grounds, play football, etc.
Went there as a schoolkid when we got shown around but that was a long time ago and don't really remember much.
Grounds are lovely as is Hursley itself, very small and characterful. Most importantly someone that lives there has a beautiful classic red 911 with huge whale tail spoiler. Anyone on here? My little lad ALWAYS looks for it whenever we drive through.
Went there as a schoolkid when we got shown around but that was a long time ago and don't really remember much.
Grounds are lovely as is Hursley itself, very small and characterful. Most importantly someone that lives there has a beautiful classic red 911 with huge whale tail spoiler. Anyone on here? My little lad ALWAYS looks for it whenever we drive through.
N24 said:
There was also an Aston restoration/MOT garage near that pub which always had Aston's in various states of repair - always a highlight to visit.
N24 said:
There was also an Aston restoration/MOT garage near that pub which always had Aston's in various states of repair - always a highlight to visit.
Mojooo said:
I presume the Hursley site includes the site includes the big house shown above plus all the buildings to the sides?
Is it for IBM desk workers? I presume no production or anything happens there.
Software production yes, hardware production no. The latter just gets done in cheaper parts of the world. Is it for IBM desk workers? I presume no production or anything happens there.
B block is a bit of an oddity!
It used to be a bloody great big, ugly tower block just to the right of A block, which is the block to the right of the main house in the photo above, but they knocked it down, and - presumably because it included the raised, covered walkway between A block and the next blocks over - left what would've been the ground floor and basement only.
Even people who've worked there for years will often struggle to tell you where it is if you ask, despite probably walking over it to get to the coffee shop on a regular basis!
The internal signage is pretty nightmarish as well! You'll be happily following signs for C block or somewhere, turn a corner, and all of a sudden, you're being directed to T, V & X block!
It used to be a bloody great big, ugly tower block just to the right of A block, which is the block to the right of the main house in the photo above, but they knocked it down, and - presumably because it included the raised, covered walkway between A block and the next blocks over - left what would've been the ground floor and basement only.
Even people who've worked there for years will often struggle to tell you where it is if you ask, despite probably walking over it to get to the coffee shop on a regular basis!
The internal signage is pretty nightmarish as well! You'll be happily following signs for C block or somewhere, turn a corner, and all of a sudden, you're being directed to T, V & X block!
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