Since then it has not seen significant development, except for some improvements early in the 18th century, when the east wing of the house, together with the gardens, church and Grist Mill, were reordered by Thomas Daunt IV between 1719 and 1726.

[1][2] Owlpen (pronounced locally "Ole-pen") derives its name, it is thought, from the Saxon thegn, Olla, who first set up his pen, or enclosure, by the springs that rise under the foundations of the manor, about the 9th century.

The Daunts altered the medieval manor house, inserting the ceiling in the great hall (dated 1523) and rebuilding the parlour/ solar block in the west wing (1616).

He became embroiled in a dispute with her uncle Thomas Daunt over the manor of Owlpen, but lost the case when he was accused of forging deeds before Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice.

[10][11] It was described by contemporary writers such as Henry Avray Tipping,[12] Christopher Hussey and the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne as an 'incomparable paradise', set in its remote valley as a Sleeping Beauty uninhabited for nearly a hundred years, a picturesque ruin, much decayed and overrun with ivy, and dwarfed by enormous yew trees.

Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, the landscape historian, stated they represented one of the earliest continuously cultivated domestic gardens in England, laid out within late medieval stone walls.

[7] They were admired as a romantic survival in the 20th century by many distinguished garden writers, including Gertrude Jekyll, who published drawings, plans and photographs in 1914,[25] and Vita Sackville-West.

There is a restaurant in the late medieval cyder house, dated 1446,[28] which was extended using pole building framing techniques as a venue for weddings, concerts and events in 2020.

They include Most Haunted (Series 4, 2004); The Fly and the Eagle (a BBC drama about the romance of Bristol poet laureate Robert Southey and Caroline Anne Bowles); The Trouble with Home (a documentary about the Manders at Owlpen made for HTV West); What the Tudors did for us; Countryfile; The Other Boleyn Girl; Watercolour Challenge; as well as antiques, cookery, gardening, travel, and art programmes.

In 2017, the manor house and estate were used as one of the principal locations for the period drama film Phantom Thread starring Daniel Day-Lewis and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

[32] A cottage at Owlpen was chosen for the press interview in September 2005, subsequently shown on Netflix,[33] with Samantha Lewthwaite, a British jihadist known as "the White Widow".