[1] The village lies on the north slope of a long chalk ridge, with the house and church at its highest point.

[6][7] The area around Hinton has evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age activity, including the presence of several barrows.

[16] In 1719, on the death of Sir Hugh Stewkeley, the estate passed to his daughter Mary who married Edward Stawell.

[20] Ralph Dutton, its final owner, inherited the estate upon the death of his father in 1935[21] and quickly proceeded to transform the Victorian design and décor, which he detested.

[30] Dutton's acquisitions were in part funded by his literary efforts, having written a series of books on architecture and history.

[31] A notable feature of the entrance hall is the porphyry fireplace, salvaged by Dutton from Hamilton Palace,[30] over which hangs Selene and Endymion by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini.

[33] This involved detaching the original painted paper roundels by Angelica Kauffman and taking moulds of Adam's plasterwork.

[37] The old Tudor house attained notoriety, in the 18th century, after it was said to have become uninhabitable due to loud noises attributed to a poltergeist.

One tenant, Mary Ricketts, wrote about her experiences in the house,[38] which included mysterious sounds as well as ghostly figures.

[6] Harry Price, citing Ricketts' statements, wrote at length about the case in his book Poltergeist Over England (1945).

He redeveloped the gardens, creating a lily pond along the east façade of the house, as well as replanting the terraces to the south.

[42] The estate in total comprises 667 hectares (1,650 acres) of chalk farm and woodland, replanted by Dutton, which were included in the 1985 bequest to the National Trust.