It was given to the Sitwell family's ancestor Susanna Jennens in 1714 as a St. Valentine's Day present from her father Sir John Blencowe, who lived at nearby Marston St Lawrence, after the death of her husband.

The property was then inherited through the female line until Sacheverell's father, the eccentric Sir George Sitwell, took a lease on the house from an aunt.

[1] The library still contained a recipe book written by Susanna Jennens' mother Anne Blencowe, which was published in 1925.

[8] During preparations for an auction of the building's contents, an 18th-century drawing by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was discovered in the loft.

Bought by Osbert Sitwell in 1936, it depicts the Pulcinella character from commedia dell'arte, and sold for £100,000 at auction.