The house was originally built for Sir Thomas Smith during the reign of Elizabeth I to replace a 12th-century house on the same site. Construction was carried out over several intervals (1567-8, 1572–3) interspersed between Smith's stints as ambassador to France.Girouard, Mark (2009). Elizabethan Architecture: its rise and fall, 1540-1640, p. 176. Yale University Press, New Haven and London. . The hall stands in 50 hectares (120 acres) of parkland designed by Humphrey Repton.
