The Sandys and Chute families made The Vyne their home for over 500 years. They accumulated beautiful and important objects and made significant changes to the house during their lives. Enjoy the collection in opulent state rooms and humble servants’ quarters.
Which parts of the house are open in 2026?
Until Sun 1 Mar: Ground floor open weekends only 11am-3pm. Then 2 Mar - 1 Nov inclusive: Ground floor and part of the first floor open daily 11am-3pm. Then 2-20 Nov inclusive: Ground floor open weekends only 11am-3pm. Then 21 Nov - 23 Dec inclusive: Ground floor decorated for Christmas and open daily 11am-3pm. Then 24-25 Dec inclusive: Closed. Then 26 Dec - 3 Jan inclusive: Ground floor decorated for Christmas and open daily 11am-3pm. 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: Different rooms may be open on different days. We'll always aim to open as much as possible for you to explore.
House ground floor highlights
Enter the house through the door on the South Drive and discover intriguing stories about The Vyne's former residents. With Grecian pillars, sweeping balconies and plasterwork like royal icing, the 18th-century staircase hall is a sight to behold.
Tucked away in a ground-floor ante-room, examine the intricate detail on Lattimo plates handpainted with 18th-century Venetian scenes. In the stone gallery, you’ll find a Tudor roundel that emulates the style and grandeur of the ancient world. The Vyne's pre-Reformation chapel showcases the earliest depiction of Henry VIII in stained glass.
Five 'must-sees' at The Vyne
Whether you want to see the house’s surviving examples of Tudor craftsmanship or admire the exquisite taste of John Chute, here are key things to look out for.
Part of an Italian Old Master work, see a rare-surviving 17th-century sketch by one of the most celebrated painters in Italian art. Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, who was known during his lifetime as il Guercino (the squinter) because of his crossed eyes, drew this preparatory sketch for the altarpiece of the Church of San Marco Evangelista in Osimo, Italy.
Created using red chalk on paper, the sketch is part of an album of 28 drawings bought by John Chute during his Grand Tour (1741-46). John Chute was an early collector of Guercino’s works, which became increasingly popular in the later 18th Century. The complete album was sold in 1949 and broken-up with each sketch then separately sold. Returning to its former home for the first time in 70 years, The Vyne purchased this sketch in 2020.
In July 1741 John Chute and his friends commissioned these hand-made plates while visiting Venice. In a time before photography, these decorative souvenirs were a way of displaying their visit, featuring different painted views of the city. Made using a technique named lattimo, tin oxide was added to the glass to give it a white appearance. The images were copied from paintings and engravings.
What really makes this set special is its survival. The sets belonging to John’s friends Walpole and Pelham-Clinton were sold after their deaths and are now dispersed. The Vyne is the only place where you can see a large, intact set of these plates (16 of the original 24 survive) which are still displayed in the cabinets made for them in the 19th Century.
This 18th-century ebony Italian casket has panels of pietra dura mounted in ormolu and encrusted with semi-precious stones. It was purchased at great expense by John Chute on the Florence leg of his Grand Tour, as a tongue-in-cheek ‘apology’ to his older brother Anthony, who had asked him to curb his spending.
John Chute was under pressure from his close friend Horace Walpole to make improvements and alterations to The Vyne. Mostly, he made drawings and then never acted upon it. An exception to this was the new entrance hall which he built in 1769 and 1770. Richly decorated with classical features, it gave a real ‘wow’ factor for visitors to his home and still provides a dramatic entrance today.
We don’t often look too closely at what’s beneath our feet, but take a look at the 16th-century tiles in the chapel and you’ll see lots of different designs, from people to animals.
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Planning your visit
The house is included in normal admission. Currently, you don't need to book to visit the house and there's no timed tickets.
Please note, you can't take food and drink inside the house.
For young families, there's slings available in the house as buggies will need to stay outside.
There's lockers by the house entrance for belongings - these are left at your own risk.
Film/Photography Policy
You're welcome to take photos for your own personal use. It's a no to commercial photography. For security reasons, please don't film.
To reduce light damage to the collection, please don't use flash photography. To take photos in low light levels without flash, try using Night Mode or similar.
Accessibility
Limited wheelchairs are available to reserve for the day. Please call 01256 883858.
There's a movable ramp at the house entrance.
Access to first floor in the house is via a staircase only and this has no handrail.
What’s on the first floor?
Scheduled to reopen 2 March 2026, visitors ascending the neo-classical staircase to The Vyne’s first floor can usually see these highlights:
From the first-floor landing, you’ll pass through two bedrooms before reaching the most highly decorated Tudor gallery in Europe. Featuring rare-surviving and carefully conserved 16th-century panelling, the Oak Gallery was visited by King Henry VIII and two of his ill-fated wives. At this time The Vyne was owned by royal favourite, William Sandys, who became Henry’s Lord Chamberlain in 1526 and created the Oak Gallery to show his powerful connections.
Richly decorated, the Oak Gallery is a Tudor showcase of the most powerful names in Henry’s court, from Cardinal Wolsey and Catherine of Aragon to local officials and the King himself. Seen by everyone from courtly rivals to tenants late with their payments, the room was designed to make a statement.
Next to the Oak Gallery, you’ll find the Tapestry Room featuring conserved 18th-century ‘Chinoiserie’ tapestries. Decorative and colourful, they are filled with exotic scenes and fantastical animals from an imagined ‘Far East’.
The tapestries were created in the early 1700s in the London Soho workshop of John Vanderbank. The leading tapestry weaver of the period, Vanderbank was the first to introduce the style later known as ‘chinoiserie’ to tapestries.
Fascination with the East was widespread in the eighteenth century thanks to increased trade. Western craftsmen were keen to mimic the decoration of imported wares, and scenes from books of illustrated travel descriptions. The result was a hotch-potch of Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Turkish cultural influences, creating fictionalised designs later known as ‘chinoiserie’.
The tapestries reflect Vanderbank’s romanticised and exaggerated European view of Asian art and culture. Atmospherically illuminated with conservation spotlights, the tapestries mark a significant historic moment in the development of today’s globalised world.
From the Tapestry Room, you can wander through a similarly tapestry-clad anteroom before reaching the library. This room features dark wooden panelling, and large family portraits surround a white marble fireplace. From their lofty vantage point atop the shelves that line the walls, busts of the likes of Homer and Shakespeare survey the space.
There are a wide variety of books housed here ranging in topics from theology and history to languages. Novels include those by Jane Austen who was a friend of Thomas Chute. The oldest book is a 15th-century Book of Hours written in Dutch and possibly originates from Delft. Some 3000 books are held in the collection with many amassed by the Chute family over 300 years.
Opening early summer: Two rooms to shed light on Chute family's past
After visiting the library, you’ll find yourself back at the first-floor landing in the staircase hall and you’ll descend the same stairs you came up by. Later in the year, two additional ‘exhibition’ rooms on the opposite side of the landing will open, shedding new light on the Chute family’s past.
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Discover more at The Vyne
Find out when The Vyne is open, how to get here, the things to see and do and more.
The Vyne was once one of the most important Tudor houses in Hampshire. For over 500 years, it was owned and shaped by just two families, the Sandys and the Chutes. Each generation enriched the property, resulting in an incredible collection and range of architecture and interiors, demonstrating the highest quality in design and craftsmanship.
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Pagan and Christian ring
This ancient gold ring is currently housed on the first floor which reopens from 2 March 2026. The ring is inscribed with the name of Venus - implying a devotions to the Roman goddess of love - and a Latin phrase which translates as 'Senicianus live in God' a phrase associated with early British Christians. It was discovered in 1785 and was later acquired by the Chute family of The Vyne. It has previously been wrongly identified as the inspiration for Tolkien's The Hobbit.
The most highly decorated Tudor gallery in Europe, visited by King Henry VIII and two of his wives, has been safeguarded for the future after months of conservation work. For the first time, visitors to The Vyne in Hampshire can experience the full glory of this 82 foot long space, covered from floor to ceiling in beautifully carved heraldic panels.
Some of the rarest surviving 18th-century stained glass in the care of the National Trust has been fitted with environmental protective glazing. Known as ‘isothermic glazing’, this will protect it from the ravages of weathering intensified by the impact of increasing rainfall and heat from the sun.
Exquisite tapestries that were once cut up as part of a nineteenth-century ‘extreme makeover’ returned home to The Vyne in Hampshire in 2022, following conservation. Decorative and colourful, they are filled with exotic scenes and fantastical animals from an imagined ‘Far East’. Some 300 years old, discover their story of survival and go behind the scenes with our video.
Find out more about hidden scribbles and drawings in this historic library collection. Discover who drew a cyclops head in a 250-year-old book and which book was chosen to write measurements for home improvements in 1746.
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Conservators condition survey 18th-century brocatelle wall hangings at The Vyne
On a dark winter’s afternoon in early January, Zenzie and Ania from textile conservators Zenzie Tinker Studios carried out an in-depth survey of the red and cream brocatelle wall hangings in The Vyne’s Further Drawing Room - the first of three rooms to be examined. Influenced by his earlier travels to Europe, 18th-century owner John Chute bought these decadent wall hangings from Italy to adorn the walls of his home. As Storm Goretti cast the house and grounds into gloom, Zenzie and Ania carefully examined every inch of the wall hangings by the light of torches and conservation lamps. The results from the condition survey will provide a vital record to help shape how we care for the collection at The Vyne.
Learn how innovations in country house communication technology, from sprung bells to early telephones, transformed the ways servants could be called upon.
