Hinton Admiral was built in 1720 for Sir Peter Mews, MP for Christchurch and nephew of the Bishop of Winchester. When Sir Peter died in 1726 the house eventually passed to his nephew George Ivison Tapps, whose descendants took on the name Gervis, then Meyrick, and still occupy the estate. It was remodelled after a fire in 1777 and remodelled and enlarged again in 1905 by the architect HE Peto.
Initially set in only a few acres of land, the house and grounds began to acquire their present-day grandeur only after George’s marriage to a wealthy heiress in 1790. New walks and gardens were laid out and the open parkland to the front of the house exceeded 70 acres even before parliamentary inclosure in 1805 ordered the re-routing of the road which had limited the length of the avenue.
The estate’s owner Sir George Meyrick (1827-1896) was involved with the building of the railway line from Brockenhurst to Bournemouth in the 1880s. As it passed through so much of his land, he was able to negotiate a clause in the sale which enabled him to stop any train at Hinton Admiral Station provided he gave 24 hours notice. The Meyrick family still live in the house today and also own and manage vast swathes of land in Bransgore and Hinton as well as large areas of Bournemouth – including much of the seafront.
