The area around Littlebredy is rich with evidence of early human occupation, including stone circles, strip lynchets, tumuli (long and round barrows) and a probable hill fort.

The estate subsequently passed to the Freke family of Iwerne Courtney and then Sir Robert Meller (or Mellor)[2] of Winterborne Came,[4] who built Bridehead House in the early 17th century.

[3][13] Ferrey also designed new cottages to form an estate village and provided plans for restoring the parish church, including adding a spire to its 14th-century tower.

[3][4] Ferrey's plan for the church—which involved virtually rebuilding it—was implemented in 1847 under the supervision of the third Robert Williams' brother-in-law, Arthur Acland, who also had an architectural input.

[15] Littlebredy village is sited between 85 and 110 metres above sea-level[6] at the head of the small River Bride, surrounded by wooded chalk hills of the Dorset Downs.

"[3][18] In prehistoric times it was used as a source of building material for nearby constructions such as tombs and stone circles, and within 4 miles are two-thirds of all such structures in the county.

[12][19] Folklore attributes the origin of the stones to have been two giants playing stone-throwing games,[20] but they are the result of conditions at the end of the last ice age, when freezing and thawing caused sandstone on surrounding hilltops to break up and slump downhill.

The stones and the surrounding dry chalk valley provide habitats for a variety of flora and fauna—including clustered bellflower, autumn gentian, lichens, bryophytes and the adonis blue butterfly—and the area is designated a National Nature Reserve.