The site is much older and was the ancestral home of the Cluddes, who took their name from the nearby village of Cluddley, from the 14th century.

[1] Remnants of the medieval manor house survive, including part of the original moat.

The severity of the neoclassical design has been criticised; "the windows devoid of any ornament, the [main] façade without plat bands or quoins, the doorway little more than an opening".

[4] The architectural historian John Newman, in the Shropshire volume of Pevsner's Buildings of England, described the house as "plain", although he acknowledged the, probably earlier, "pretty details [such] as the oval window, the dormer and the lantern".

[5] They contain a "remarkable"[2] gazebo, dating from the 18th century and in a Chinoiserie taste, which has its own Grade II* listing.