It was, the listing notice claims, owned by Edmund Wingate, mathematician and tutor to Queen Henrietta Maria.

[1] Famously, John Bunyan, the English divine, was interrogated by Sir Francis Wingate and briefly imprisoned in the house, in November 1660.

Charles II is said to have stayed briefly at the house in late 1660, apparently to thank Sir Francis Wingate for his help in dealing with the potential sedition of John Bunyan.

[1] In 1937, the architect, Sir Albert Richardson (responsible for works to Somerset House and the designer of the North London Collegiate School, Manchester Opera House and numerous other high-profile commissions) designed an extension forming a new north wing.

The beams show many carpenter's marks-used as an aid to re-assembly of the structure on site, after the timbers had first been cut and erected at the yard of the local wright.