Hinton Ampner House

History

The estate takes its present character from Ralph Dutton, later 8th Baron Sherborne, who inherited Hinton Ampner in the 1930s and remodelled the house and grounds in a restrained Georgian style, drawing on his own taste as a noted architectural historian. A serious fire in 1960 gutted much of the interior, and Dutton rebuilt it largely to his earlier design. He left the house, garden and estate to the National Trust on his death in 1985.

Architecture

The house presents a Georgian exterior, the result of Ralph Dutton's twentieth-century remodelling rather than an original build, and is Grade II listed.

Worth knowing

Ralph Dutton, who shaped Hinton Ampner, was a respected writer on English architecture and used the house as a personal expression of his own Georgian taste, right down to rebuilding it after the 1960 fire to match his earlier scheme.

Gardens & grounds

The formal gardens, laid out by Dutton with long grass walks and framed views across the downs, are a major reason visitors come to Hinton Ampner.