Wilbury House

[2] The house was built around 1710 by and for William Benson, a country esquire and amateur architect, in the style of Inigo Jones.

An 1813 engraving in The Beauties of England and Wales shows a pediment on the south portico which is no longer present, and a different arrangement of windows above it.

[8] The present two-storey house has its entrance on the north side, where a three-bay porch on Ionic columns was probably added c.1800–1810.

The seven-bay south front, overlooking the gardens, is flanked by large pavilion-like rooms added c.1760, partly octagonal and projecting forward.

[11] Peter Grenfell (1922–1984) inherited the property from his father in 1941, and his second wife Maria Britneva – a Russian-born actress who became Tennessee Williams' literary executor – continued to live there until her death in 1994.

Here is a lodge built in 1909 in classical style, with pedimented gables disguising its flat roof, and a loggia behind Tuscan columns.

[2] It is possible that William Benson or Henry Hoare, a later owner, may have engaged the landscape designer Charles Bridgeman (1690–1738); he is known to have worked at Amesbury Abbey.

[17] North-east of the house, an avenue leads to a small octagonal summerhouse with a domed roof, built over an ice-house.