Though Hinton Ampner has always been a hamlet it also qualifies as a village due to it having a parish church. This charming little place can be found on the Winchester to Petersfield road and it is part of the Civil parish of Bramdean and it is even larger than Bramdean! The school closed down but Sir Hugh Stewkley lived here in Hinton and died in 1719 aged 81 and he bequeathed £5,000 each to his three daughters on the condition that if they marry it had be with the blessing and consent of their mother.

The youngest daughter Mary,  married just after her fathers death and she married her fathers groom William Blake who by this time had set up a successful coal merchants business in Weeke near Winchester. They lived here until Mary died three years later at the age of 37 and was followed by the death of William six years after aged 49 and it was him that left a bequest to build and endow a free school at Hinton Ampner and a memorial to him and his wife to be erected at Weeke church.
 

All Saints Church,
Hinton Ampner

But what draws the tourists to Hinton Ampner is not ghosts but the gardens of Hinton Ampner House, which is also the home of the church of All Saints.

It is the determination of one man that the place would not be as it is today and due to a change in circumstances a mystery is now open to the public. Hinton Ampner is owned by the National trust and for many years it was leased privately but now the tenancy has ended the National Trust has opened the house on Sundays for the very first time, and they have also refurbished the walled garden,

The house had a chequered history and 'Hentune' was recorded in the Domesday Survey as being in the hands of the Bishop of Winchester. A lease was taken on it in 1597 by Sir Thomas Stewkeley but exact details of any history has not been unearthed, but what has been found is that Mary Stewkely married Edward Stawell in 1719 and when she died in 1740 her husband stayed in the house her sister Honoaria Stewkeley. After their deaths Hinton was leased out again this time to the Ricketts but it is said that they ghost of Lord Stawell and his sister in law drove them away.

In 1793 Henry who was the second Lord Stawell decided to get rid of the house and he demolished it and rebuilt it on a different site and this is the main foundations for the house today. But Henry's daughter wed John Dutton and their son John rebuilt the house in a Tudor style. But their son Ralph did not like it and described it as of 'exceptional hideousness'.

But it was Ralph who brought the beautiful gardens which were said to be a masterpiece of design and it was his idea to form an impression of tranquillity through not planting anything with garish colours and so he used evergreens for shape and form, striking vies across the landscape were framed by trees and shrubs and they have remained more or less unchanged since the thirties when he began what was to be his life's work..

One of his first jobs was to change the house back to its original Georgian design and he did this in 1936 and added a collection of paintings and furniture which a lot of these were destroyed in a major fire in 1960.

Ralph Dutton became a High Sheriff of Hampshire and from the days of the fire until he died he amassed a collection of books and more furniture and antiques, but he never married and passed away in 1985 two years after inheriting the title of Lord Sherborne and in 1984  the house and 1,650 acres of estate became the property of the National Trust . His real title was the 8th Baron Sherborne the Right Honourable Ralph Stawell Dutton the last in his line,

HISTORY OF ALL SAINTS CHURCH

Cottages on the main street through Hinton Ampner
The interior of All Saints Church at Hinton Ampner
Hinton Ampner House whose gardens are now open to the public, the church stands in its grounds

THE HINTON AMPNER GHOST

There is not much information left to describe its early history but in 1755 a groom stated that he had see the ghost of his old master moving around the bedroom.

Then a year later Mr and Mrs Rickets leased the house, they wre reputed to have been good truthful people and they then said this was when strange things began to happen, items moving of their own accord, things breaking or going missing drawers found open after they were sure they had just closed them.

Mr Rickets went abroad on business at the end of 1769 and things got so bad at the house that it was decided that it could no go on. Voices were heard muttering, footsteps walking around and loud banging on the doors and panels but nothing could be found to explain why this was happening. A small maid had a fit which lasted for a couple of hours and shrieked so much she ran from the house in fear of her life!

It was then that Mary Rickets confided in her brother Earl St Vincent and he along with a couple of friends stayed overnight at the house to keep watch and to catch what they thought were tricksters and they searched the house from top to bottom and locked every door that was not being used.

But the 'happenings' continued and now had reached a new violent peak and loud banging and whisperings were heard, shadowy figures were seen and and challenged but they just faded away, The men stayed a week trying to find out the cause and in the end were forced to admit defeat. They told Mary Rickets that the house was not fit for humans and soon after the family moved out and the manor stayed empty until in the 18th century it was demolished.