[2] The village lies in the Cotswolds at an elevation of over 800 ft, above the valley of the River Frome.

The battle and siege scenes in Brother Cadfael's Penance by Ellis Peters (a pen name of Edith Pargeter) are set in the castle built by the Musard family, given the name of "La Musarderie" in the novel.

The book includes a map of Greenhamsted, the castle and nearby Winstone, and the road that leads either to Gloucester or the other way, to Cirencester, to an Augustinian monastery.

The memorial was designed by the renowned architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and is a grade II listed building.

Further additions and reshaping of the garden were done by Edwin Lutyens, who contributed the five-bay Tuscan loggia.