THE MONASTIC PERIOD
Gins is not in the Domesday Book of 1086. Nor does it appear in the few surviving monastic documents. The first written reference comes in 1538. But we need to begin our story earlier.
If you google Gins you come across the Hampshire Treasures website which baldly states that Gins Old Farmhouse was built around 1250 for monastic use. That seems to be rubbish. There is no evidence for a house here at that date. If there was a building or buildings, they were probably insubstantial; all traces have disappeared.
Gins was important then for a different reason. The clue lies in the name. In the thirteenth century the word “gin” was a variant of a French word which meant “a machine employing a simple tackle or windlass for lifting”. So this was a place where things were lifted – presumably on or off boats. Where did the goods come from and where were they going? 
St. Leonards GrangeSt. Leonards was less than a kilometre away. It was the largest of Beaulieu Abbey’s granges and it had the largest mediaeval barn in England. Gins was connected to it by an all weather road. It was essentially the port for St Leonards.
Several recent archaeological surveys refer to a mediaeval harbour at Ginns. Professor Adams of Southampton University sent us the relevant part of their 1994 report part of which reads “ ... a survey was undertaken at Gins Hard....A modern concrete slip has been built on the site but evidence still remains of at least two previous stages of wooden construction”. The report provides further details. The latest study, by Wessex Archaeology in 2010, states: “It is possible that archaeological remains associated with this mediaeval harbour could exist on the foreshore. Fragments of a linear structure, thought to be a landing stage, have been identified from aerial photographs in the location.....” Excited by this, we searched far and wide for those aerial photographs - but without success. While there’s no reason to doubt that there was a mediaeval harbour, a properly focussed archaeological exploration, with dating of timbers et cetera, is needed to confirm the details.
There’s a good reason why the monastic documents contain no reference to Gins. It wasn’t a separate entity. It was part of the St. Leonard’s economic unit. But it probably saw a great deal of activity. It is likely that the stone for building the great barn and the rest of St. Leonard’s was shipped in through Gins. We know that there was constant traffic between Beaulieu Abbey and the granges. The Abbey sent bread, beer, fish and salt to the granges. They sent back oats, wheat, beans, vetches, butter and cheese. This could all have been sent overland but it would have been quicker and easier to use the river. Father Hockey’s history of the Abbey tells us that the lay brothers who staffed the granges had to visit the Abbey for religious services 22 times during the year. All in all, many people would have been travelling to and from St. Leonard’s for administrative, agricultural, religious or other purposes. Gins quay must have been a bustling place.