Lyndhurst Road (A35) Hinton St. Michael
Christchurch. Dorset BH 23 7EF
Tel: +44(0) 1425672404  Fax: +44(0)14257674 315

e-mail : enquiries@eastclosehotel.co.uk

The Ghostly Past
History of the Hotel and its Locality

The Parish of Hinton in which The East Close Country Hotel stands was inhabited in Saxon times, before William the Conqueror created the New Forest. The clearing lay on the edge of the River Avon and the River Stour on the Banks of which Christchurch was built and so the scattered Hamlet was known as Heah Tun or high farm. In the Doomsday Book it is already Hentune and so the name changed through the centuries finally settling down as Hinton. There are now 2 Hintons: Hinton Admiral, the name of the manor of the district, and Hinton St Michael which gets its name from the parish church.

The site has been inhabited since the Stone-Age. A farmhouse was constructed here in 1702 and is portrayed on the earliest Ordnance Survey maps. The raised elevation looking from the car park is the oldest part of the building. Towards the end of the 18th Century, the present mansion was built, incorporating the original farmhouse structure. The two contrasting styles of architecture can be seen from the forecourt.

The mansion house was completed in 1792, the year in which Robert Adam died, after whose style the house was designed. Robert and his brother James Adam were even more famous for their interior decoration than for their architecture and their influence at the East Close can be seen in the Main Stairway, which is a perfect example of an Adams Staircase with an Adams Cupola above it and Cornices over the principal doorways.

The grounds of the mansion incorporate a series of gardens that are said to have inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alices Adventures in Wonderland. The settings for the stories are all here - the walled garden, the croquet lawn, the beautiful Copper Beech Tree; each referred to in one of the most famous novels ever written. Alice Liddell, the little girl on whom Carroll based his stories, certainly spent time at The East Close in latter years, having married Reginald Hargreave on 15th September 1880 (whose family seat was the 168 acre estate Cuffnels) at Lyndhurst.

Alice Hargreave remained in the local area until she died in 1934. The Hargreave family were related to the Merrick, Tapps Gervis family who owned The East Close for a considerable period and used it as a Dower House to Hinton Admiral House. This is one explanation for the name of the building, given its relative position to the main estate. It is quite understandable that an area of such natural beauty could light the flame of genius that prompted Carroll to write.

It is also claimed that Admiral Lord Nelson spent his last night ashore at The East Close, whilst on his way to Portsmouth to board the Victory, his flagship under the command of Captain Hardy. Lord Nelson had travelled down from his house at Matchams near Ringwood. From Portsmouth the Victory sailed out and joined the British Fleet and then proceeded south to Spain, where Nelson met and defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar. The rest is history, with the famous signal 'England Expects' and Nelson's death when he was shot and killed by a French Rifleman in 1805.

Research has not revealed when the East Close mansion and its attractive gardens first became a hotel but this is thought to have taken place in the early twentieth century.

The new restaurant block was added in the 1970's but had been part of the original stable block. In the 60's it was famous (or even infamous) for the 'Saddle Bars' - photographs of which can be seen on the walls!

In common with many historic properties, it is rumoured that the older parts of the building are haunted. Sightings of a highwayman in the courtyard and of an apparition in 18th Century dress walking the corridors are not uncommon. Ask for a room over the restaurant block if the possibility of a close encounter of the metaphysical kind gives cause for concern!

The name of the establishment was changed to The East Close Country Hotel when the current owners took over in July