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Built in 1887 by a newly wed couple, the Lieutenant and Mabel Walker-Munro, replacing a previous Keeper’s Lodge which had been home of a New Forest Nurseryman. The land had been in the hands of Mabel’s family, the Walkers, since 1877 and their new house and accompanying gardens were paid for by a £250,000 engagement gift from her father who was a wealthy Nottinghamshire colliery owner.

The house passed to the couple’s son following the death of Mabel Munro-Walker in 1934, but death duties on his death in 1950 led to it having to be sold. Various plans for its future failed to come to fruition, although for a period of ten years it housed a school. It was later owned by a Mr Oliver Cutts who carried out some refurbishment, until in 1982 it passed to a hotel chain who turned it into a hotel and timeshare, a function it has served since under various owners.

The house itself was designed by the London architects Romaine-Walker and Tanner, in a mixture of styles, both Tudor and Gothic, with wood panelling throughout the main house. Particular features are the Armada Room, now serving as the hotel restaurant, which includes a solid oak carving of the Spanish Armada by Aumonier, and the Alhambra Room, modelled on the Alhambra Palace in Granada, which was originally the smoking room.

The house is grade II* listed - see Link. The gardens as a whole are also grade II listed – see Link with some features being individually listed, including the canal and fountain – seeLink – and the wall on the garden side of the west wing – see Link.