The core of its building is a Grade II listed country house built in the late 17th or early 18th century.

[5] In 1827 it was bought by Andreas Boode (1763–1844), a Dutch-British owner of plantations in Demerara which used enslaved labour.

[5] The whole was remodelled in 1919–20 for Sir Alfred Read, chairman of Coast Lines, the UK's largest coastal shipping company.

[7] The central part was given a three-gabled attic and tall chimneys in Jacobean style, and the rear front and interiors were remodelled.

[12] A 19th-century octagonal dovecote in the kitchen garden is described by Historic England as exceptionally large and of an unusually late date.