[1] Originally built around a courtyard, the house is now a six- by five-bay block with flanking pavilions.

It is constructed of ashlar in two storeys plus basement and attics with a hipped stone slate roof.

[3] Stepleford House was built for Thomas Fownes in 1634 on land he had bought from George Pitt of Stratfield Saye, Hampshire.

It was sold by his descendant, also Thomas Fownes, in 1745 for £12,500 to Julines Beckford, son of a rich Jamaican plantation owner.

Beckford remodelled the house and developed the grounds, creating a lake by damming the River Iwerne.