Historic England follows the tradition favoured by Kipling of ascribing the construction to a Sussex ironmaster, John Britten.

[3] The historian Adam Nicolson reports the tradition in the National Trust's guidebook, but notes that Britten was a dealer in iron, rather than a manufacturer.

[2] By the early twentieth century, the house had descended to the status of a farmhouse, and was in a poor state of repair.

[3] Historic England's listing states that the wing was constructed but later torn down,[3] while Pevsner suggests that it may never have been built.

[2] The windows are mullioned and the roof has an "impressive row of six diamond-shaped red brick chimney stacks".

[12] The house contains a significant collection relating to Kipling, amounting to nearly 5,000 individual pieces, including his Nobel Prize, his Rolls-Royce Phantom I, many oriental items he purchased while living in India or touring in the East and paintings he collected by Edward Poynter, Edward Burne-Jones and James Whistler.

[15] By Kipling's time, the mill was no longer in operation and he installed an electric turbine in it to provide power for the house.