Hinton Ampner, as it is today, was created quite recently and largely by one man - Ralph Dutton.

Defying the chalky, alkaline soil and exposed setting, he brought together landscape, garden, house and collection to form a sensitive and unified whole that was very much in the 18th-century tradition, albeit on a modest scale. But in laying out the garden in the 20th-century, he had a much greater variety of plants at his disposal than his 18th-century predecessors, relying particularly on the expertise of the famous Hampshire nursery, Hillier's. He preferred their colouring to be low key, avoiding harsh contrasts. It is by a carefully considered marriage of modern gardening, neo-Georgian building and neo-classical furnishings that he achieved his vision of tranquillity.

From Tudor to Georgian
The first of Ralph Dutton's ancestors to live at Hinton Ampner was Sir Thomas Stewkeley, who took a lease on the estate in 1597. He occupied an E-shaped house that had been built earlier in that century about 50 metres north of the present building on a ridge looking south over the gentle Hampshire countryside.

The haunted Tudor house survived until 1793, when it was demolished to make way for a plain yellow brick Georgian box, which forms the core of the present Hinton Ampner house. In 1867 Ralph Dutton's grandfather remodelled and enlarged this house in the neo-Tudor style and created a garden of formal parterres below it.

As soon as he inherited the estate in 1935 Ralph Dutton decided to demolish most of the house - he sought to reveal the Georgian core of the house and give the whole an 18th-century appearance. He remodelled the garden to create something more in keeping with his neo-Georgian house. Work was interrupted by the war and not completed until 1960.

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The planting begins
Dutton began by planting trees in the parkland in the early 1930s, skilfully accentuating the modest undulations of the landscape and creating splendid views before there was a true focus for them.

He followed this by laying out the Sunken Garden in 1935 and so channelling the main view from the house into the South Park, before ultimately rebuilding his grandfather's Victorian pile to exploit these features. The Sunken Garden effectively conceals the bounds and at the same time bisects the east-west axis, which spans the breadth of the site and it centres on two trees that predate the garden.

On either side of this Long Walk, borders were planted over the years. During the Second World War the Lime Avenue, dating back to about 1720, was incorporated into the scheme of the garden. The planting of substantial shrub-rose borders was inspired by a visit to Sissinghurst in 1950.

Another feature that he adapted was the Dell, a chalk-pit which, although first brought into the overall design immediately after the Second World War, proved very difficult to plant and maintain and probably reached its best only after restoration in 1991.

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Out of the ashes
On Sunday 3 April 1950, Ralph Dutton was out walking in the park, when he noticed a thin column of smoke rising from the trees. He returned to find the house in flames. His fine 18th-century fireplaces and his collections of pictures, furniture and books were almost entirely destroyed but, undaunted, he at once began to rebuild the house in neo-Georgian style.

Hinton comes to the Trust
Ralph Dutton was a bachelor, and on his death in 1985, the 8th and last Lord Sherborne bequeathed the estate of 667 hectares (1,650 acres) to the National Trust. The hamlet of Hinton Ampner, the house, gardens and collections were all included in this generous gift.

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A living, developing garden
Ralph Dutton was convinced that a garden must always move forward and left Hinton Ampner to the National Trust as a developing garden. It is presented today as a working garden, a dynamic place where the plantings are regularly being enhanced and the range extended, always with careful consideration of the designer's original concept.

Next to the orchard stands All Saints parish church, which was originally Saxon. The chancel was rebuilt before 1822, and the nave by Ralph Dutton's grandfather in the 1870s, when the French-style bell-tower was also added. Ralph Dutton and many of his ancestors are buried here.