From about 1920 to 1987, it was the home of Henry Burtt, who suggested the idea of the radio programme The Archers to the BBC producer Godfrey Baseley.

The land on which the house stands was acquired by Thomas Rigdon of Chartham in Kent when he married Anne heiress of Anthony Villiers, whose mother had been a member of the Roos family, who had lived in Dowsby for eight generations.

Around 1920 the Dowsby Hall estate was purchased by Trinity College, Cambridge and Henry Burtt became the tenant farmer.

In 1946, the BBC Radio producer Godfrey Baseley, later to become first editor of The Archers, came to Rippingale to make a programme called Farm Visit.

Henry Burtt and his son Stephen showed him their land all round Rippingale and explained their unusual crops and methods.

It took place in Birmingham Town Hall on 3 June 1948 and produced nothing new until Burtt stood up and famously said: "What we want is a farming ‘Dick Barton'," and sat down again, to laughter from the audience.

[4] Henry Burtt died in 1987 at the age of 94, and in that year Trinity College sold Dowsby Hall, but retained the surrounding farmland.

The front of the house is in limestone-based ashlar on the east facade and the rebuilt south face, while the north and west sides are in coursed Rubble masonry.

[7] Sir Howard Colvin cautions against too readily accepting Thorpe as the architect, as his book of plans contains new projects, surveys of existing buildings, and others that are probably copies of designs by other surveyors.