Just north of Hinton is the small hamlet of Beckley. Hinton Admiral is the property and residence of Sir George A. E. Tapps-Gervis-Meyrick, bart., to whom Beech House also belongs; Heathfield Lodge is the property of Mr. Evelyn Geoffrey Saye; Winkton Lodge of the Misses Lassell; Winkton House of Mr. J. D. Mills of Bisterne; Burton Hall, a late 18th-century house of red brick with stone dressings, of Major Henry Lloyd Powell, late R.H.A.; and Whitehayes of Mr. Alfred Treeby.
The earliest record of CHRISTCHURCH that has been found is a grant in the year 939 by King Athelstan to the monastery at Milton in Hampshire of one weir on the Avon there.
Robert Pitt, father of William Earl of Chatham, described the property in a letter to his father as the most desirable then in the market. His father, however, in replying, recalled that there were flaws in the title. (fn. 198) The estates were sold in 1708 to Peter Mews, who was knighted by Queen Anne. On his marriage in 1719 he settled Christchurch on Lydia Gervis or Jarvis, his wife, who held it till her death in 1751 without issue. She left it by will to her nephew, Jarvis Clerke, with remainder to Benjamin Clerke, sons of her sister Agnes and their heirs male. Jarvis died in her lifetime, without issue, but Benjamin survived her and left a son Joseph Jarvis Clerke, who, inheriting, (fn. 199) barred the entail, (fn. 200) and died without issue in 1778, leaving the estate to his cousin George Ivison Tapps, great-grandson of Elizabeth, another sister of Lydia, (fn. 201) who was created a baronet in 1791. He devised his estates to his son Sir George William Tapps Gervis, who died in 1842, leaving a son Sir George Elliott Meyrick Tapps-Gervis-Meyrick, who died in 1896, and whose son Sir George Augustus Elliott TappsGervis-Meyrick is the present owner. (fn. 202)
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