The house, reputed to have been partly built to the designs of Inigo Jones,[1] was noted as the residence of 18th-century industrialist and ironmaster John "Iron-Mad" Wilkinson.

[3] However, a portico at the house dated 1624 was more firmly attributed to the architect,[4] though it was later noted that the aedicular doorway was in fact a copy of Plate 158 in Sebastiano Serlio's Fourth Book, the Regole generali d'architettura (1537).

[12] Roy, along with Henry Robertson and others, formed the Brymbo Mineral & Railway Company and restarted iron production on the estate.

It became partly derelict after World War II, when it was used by the military, and its lower floors were used for keeping livestock by a local farmer.

It was eventually demolished in 1973 when open cast mining was carried out on the site and is still considered to be one of the most unfortunate architectural losses in Wales.

[2] In addition to the Inigo Jones tradition, a local story said the house, and the road leading to it, was haunted by a "grey lady" supposed to be the ghost of Jane Wynn, who lived there alone in the 18th century, following the death of her husband.