The Old Court at Brinsop was built in the early fourteenth century by a local squire, and was grander than a similar manor across the county at Cheyney Longville, which was owned by a knight and member of parliament.

The Chapel, with the staircase leading to it, occupied one side of the square; it had a groined roof and walls painted in frescoes.... Two towers flanked the drawbridge, having grotesque figures on their tops - one being a monkey playing with a fiddle.

Tradition records that at the time of medieval settlement of the land at Brinsop in around 1210 a knight called St George slayed a dragon on the spot where the church was founded.

In 1340 the King Edward III allowed a reversion charter to Ralph Tirell of 240 acres in fee for military service - de Domino Herberto filio Petri - a tenants of Lord Herbert.

[6] The stained glass in the church celebrates a visit by Charles I to the house in 1645, which is confirmed by the differenced arms of the Danseys with the ducal families of Chandos, Talbot, and Baskerville.

In 1817 the house was purchased for £26,000 by the economist David Ricardo of Gatcombe Park, who was buying a number of estates at the time, not least Bromsberrow Place, situated above the Severn at the point where the three counties intersected.

[8] His sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, wrote of Brinsop Court that it was no cheerless spot, and flowers in the hedges and blossoms in the numerous orchards will soon make it gay.

She was previously briefly married to Sir Richard Francis Sutton, one of the wealthiest commoners of the time and famed for racing his yacht Genesta for the America’s Cup in 1885.

Captain Philip Astley MC inherited the estate and during the 1930s he brought his new wife, the actress and socialite Madeleine Carroll to live at the house, whose friends and guests included Noël Coward.