Adsdean House was opened as a Dr Barnardo evacuation home on 6th June 1940 as a mixed home. Adsdean House was closed 21st July 1950. Adsdean House was Once the home of Admiral Viscount Louis Mountbatten of Burma. Dr Barnardo's took it over from Archibald Hay Tennent, Esq at the start of the battle of Britain.

We did not have any further information on Adsdean House so we sent our roving reporter Peter Niven visits West Sussex on a tough assignment in 1995.

Adsdean House and its estate (Adsdean Park) are first mentioned in early records, shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066 AD. By the year 1160 the building, then a wooden Anglo-Saxon manor house, had become part of the estate of the Earl of Arundel, remaining such for a good number of centuries until sold into private ownership around 1845.

Nothing now remains of the old manor house, but records in the care of West Sussex record office at Chichester, do show that the former manor house was wooden, from documents dated around 1623, and that the first modern structure to be built of stone as the present building is, actually dates from the first half of the Victorian era, having been completed in 1850.

There is a reference to the present Adsdean House, in the book, Buildings of England by Ian Nairn and Nickolaus Pevsner, to the effect that Adsdean House, is a simple gabled Tudor house but with a delightful south addition by Norman Shaw, 1877 .... A two storey wing with white painted polygonal bow window (without a doubt, the most outstanding feature in the whole building – PSN), the end gable made into a composition with the chimney in his very best manner. Flint and stone construction, hence no chance to be heavy handed (presumably during construction –PSN), instead there is a freshness and sensitivity ... '

One suspects that Adsdean House was chosen by Barnardo's to house children from the London Blitz at the outbreak of the Second World War, because of its remoteness and isolation from the city of Chichester. It opened as a mixed home on June 6 1940, right at the beginning of the Battle of Britain. Since then the house has not become any less remote, even with the advent of modern transport ­In the time that I have researched old Barnardo's premises in the last few years, this is the second I have found which is so completely starved of accessible public transport, the other was New Lodge at Windsor. So unless you feel up to doing the equivalent of a 14-mile hike (a complete round trip from Chichester, out to Funtington), I'd suggest you give this one a complete miss! Even if you can find a local bus to Funtington (the nearest village) by the widely scattered timetable, they are far and few between. There will also be at least a 3/4 mile round walk from Funtingron, to Adsdean and back. Best to go in by car, if you have one, worse still, you can do as I did. Get a taxi (round-trip fare, £15).

It makes the mind wonder what the Barnardo's charity was up to, all those years ago, when it shipped the kids out there. Yes, there was a war on and, yes, the children's safety was paramount but whatever happened when peace broke out afterwards? There weren't many local facilities on the day I was at Funtington, 45 years ago, it may even have been worse! Fortunately, Barnardo's relented, closing down the home on July 21 1950.