The present building dates mostly from 1738, when Lord of the manor Thomas Western rebuilt the original 13th-century structure (part of which remains inside), and 1905 when Charles Stanley Peach's renovation and enlargement gave the house its current appearance.

The manor house passed through several owners, including the Stanfords—reputedly the richest family in Sussex[1]—after several centuries of ownership by the Diocese of Chichester and a period in which it was Crown property.

Since 1932, when the Stanford family bequeathed the building to Brighton Corporation, Preston Manor has been a museum and exhibition venue evoking upper-class life during the Edwardian era.

Edward died in 1515 (his tomb is in St Peter's Church) and his family, including his son Richard, stayed at Preston to farm sheep.

The main hall was on the right-hand (western) side; it measured 27 by 21 feet (8.2 m × 6.4 m) and was raised slightly above the steeply sloping ground to provide space for a cellar underneath.

[4] Elaborate (but "clumsily executed")[2] moulded entrance doors were added in the east and west walls; designed in the Classical style, with flanking pilasters, architraves and cornices with a frieze.

Richard Shirley died unmarried in 1705 and Preston Manor was inherited jointly by his three sisters named Anne, Mary and Judith.

Ellen was educated at Miss Russell's private school in Montpelier Road, Brighton and after graduating spent two social seasons in London.

In October 1867, she married Vere Fane Benett-Stanford (1840–1894) of Pythouse near Tisbury, Wiltshire, in a ceremony at St Peter's Church, after which a wedding breakfast for forty guests was held at Preston Manor.

When the railway lines crossed the Stanford estate he received £30,000 compensation for the loss of his land and the spoiling of the westerly view from Preston Manor.

To offset the sale of land in Brighton, the Stanford estate trustees acquired freeholds in Wiltshire, Sussex, Middlesex and Croydon and leaseholds in London.

In 1896 in Madeira she met Charles Thomas, a bachelor who had been fortune seeking in the mines of South Africa and Rhodesia, and they married the following year.

Meanwhile, Ellen's son John was in Africa hunting big game, serving with the Tirah field force and working as a freelance war correspondent.

As early as 1918 Ellen was thinking of selling Preston Manor to Brighton Corporation; years of feuding with her son had left a legacy of bitterness.

Charles and Ellen were probably influenced by their friend Henry Roberts, Director of the Royal Pavilion, but they also feared that if John did inherit he would demolish the house or turn it into a girls' school.

In 1925 Charles bought Preston Manor from his wife's trustees and made provision in his will that, subject to the respective life interests of himself and Ellen, Preston Manor and four acres of adjoining land should pass to Brighton Corporation by deed of gift on the condition that it be preserved in its historic condition and be used as a museum with exhibits relevant to Brighton and Sussex.

Charles died in March having willed to the Corporation 'all my books, documents, ancient deeds and papers relating exclusively or primarily to the County of Sussex'.

The transfer to the corporation (a forerunner of the present Brighton & Hove City Council) was completed in January 1933,[17] after which the building was opened to the public as a museum of Edwardian life, showing how a wealthy rural family would have lived and entertained at that time.

On 20 July 1947 a funeral tea was held in the drawing room for Christiana (Lily) Macdonald, with the Manor closed to the public that afternoon in respect.

The way Preston Manor is presented to the public today reflects the way of life of a rich gentry family and their servants in the period before and after the First World War.

[7] The north-side main entrance, in the centre of the ground floor and reached by steps with iron railings, is flanked by a Classical-style porch with Doric columns topped by paterae (round decorative elements) and a cornice.

[7] The south (rear, garden-facing) front has a centrally oriented flint and stone porch flanked by paired entrances with segmental arched pediments and keystones, windows with architraves and a panel with a coat-of-arms carving.

[3][7][19] At attic level there is a former maids workroom now presented as a nursery, a lavatory and bathroom and housekeeping storage rooms, and restored Victorian servants quarters can be visited in the basement.

[24] One of Eleanor Stanford's children from her second marriage, already familiar with the descriptions of the ghost, claimed to have encountered it in 1896, walking from the drawing room to the staircase, and said that the apparition disappeared when she tried to touch it.

[25] Later in 1896, a friend of the Stanford family, who was staying at Preston Manor in the hope of seeing the White Lady, reported encountering it in the entrance hall.

[26][27] Early in 1897, the skeleton of a middle-aged woman, whose remains were dated to the 16th century by a doctor, was found behind the house during building work; it was secretly buried on consecrated ground in St Peter's churchyard, with help from the Stanford family.

[29] The southwest side of the building was apparently a focus for paranormal activity: strange noises, objects being moved, dresses being cut with regular patterns of holes, and doors opening and shutting were all reported there.

Reputed sightings included one in the boiler room of the house, early in the 20th century; two in quick succession by a World War II firewatcher, first on the main staircase then on the parapet of the roof;[28] and one by a security guard.

[3][23] Preston Manor's extensive history of purported paranormal activity has led to the establishment of regular "ghost tours", and the Living television channel's programme Most Haunted filmed an episode there in June 2006.

[32] The garden walls on the southeast side of the house, and the ruined wellhouse in the grounds, were listed at the lower Grade II (a designation given to "nationally important buildings of special interest")[31] on 20 August 1971.