[2] In 1612 Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester, bought from Nicholas Boteler his manors of Great and Little Badminton, called "Madmintune" [sic] in the Domesday Book of 1086, while one century earlier the name "Badimyncgtun" was recorded,[3][4] held by that family since 1275.

The Dukes of Beaufort acquired the property in the late 17th century, when the family moved from Raglan Castle, Monmouthshire, which had been ruined in the Civil War.

For the fourth duke, who succeeded his brother in 1745, the architect William Kent renovated and extended the house in the Palladian style, but many earlier elements remain.

[6] Whether or not the sport of badminton was re-introduced from British India or was invented during the hard winter of 1863 by the children of the eighth duke in the Great Hall (where the featherweight shuttlecock would not mar the life-size portraits of horses by John Wootton, as the tradition of the house has it),[7] it was popularised at the house, hence the sport's name.

[12] At the north entrance to the park, near the Tetbury road and reached from the house by the Three Mile Ride, the Grade I listed Worcester Lodge was designed in 1746 by William Kent.

Over the high central archway is a dining room with generous windows and balustraded balconies; a pediment bears the Beaufort arms and the roof is partly domed.