About

Our Emblematic Blanchard Room If you haven’t ascended to the Blanchard Room then you must make it your first point of call on your next visit. The history dates back to the 1660s when The Hollywood was owned by significant landowners the Middletons, who owned terrain not just in England but in Barbados and the Southern States of the Americas.

Fast forward a century and Henry Middleton’s home had been converted into a Military Academy by Louis Lochee, known then as Bolton House. Lochee built fortifications in the grounds and from that very spot the first ascent to the skies was made by two ambitious balloonists, Sheldon and Blanchard in 1784. They successfully transported themselves as far as Romsey in Hampshire and the memory of this occasion lives on in the exquisite airs on The Blanchard Room