[1] In the Tudor period, a house on the site was described by its owner, the Welsh-language poet Gryffydd ap Ieuan, as "a high-crested, too long sided, loose-eaved, short-raftered, rambling, soot-accumulating old ornament of ancient workmanship".
[a] Mutton, the son of minor Welsh gentry, pursued a successful career as a lawyer, becoming Clerk of the Crown for Denbigh and Montgomery, Attorney General for Wales and The Marches, and a knight.
[6] In the early 20th century, the then owners, Captain and Mrs Piers Jones, employed Percy Stephen Cane to undertake further remodelling of the grounds.
John Claudius Loudon, horticulturalist and historian of the Picturesque was not impressed, describing the estate as "much modernised and the fine old house too much so".
These include: the temple, loggia, terraces and other works carried out by Percy Cane in the 20th century;[24] the coach house,[25] clock tower,[26] and a barn;[27] the Middle,[28] and Bottom Lodges;[29] and two bridges, all of which are listed at Grade II.