It stands facing west in 30 acres of rising ground about a half a kilometre (quarter of a mile) from the left bank of the River Conder.

Robert left only a daughter, Elizabeth, who married William de Hoghton of Park Hall, Charnock Richard.

For this he was imprisoned in London and his land was confiscated, but after his release he walked back to Lancaster and recovered Thurnham after paying a large fine.

John Dalton married Mary Gage and carried out some modernisation of the building in 1823, replacing the front facade and adding corner turrets and embattled parapet.

On her death in 1861 she was succeeded by a distant cousin, Sir James Fitzgerald, who adopted the additional surname of Dalton.