The house was built as a hunting lodge for Major-General William Henry Lowther following his retirement from the Bengal Army[2] in the late 1870s.[1] The house has "single-storey gabled wings reminiscent of an Indian bungalow, which he stuffed with mementos of his time in Bengal, including the skin of a crocodile shot after it had eaten a man, and he planted rhododendrons and azaleas in his garden."[3]
The house was acquired by C. J. Ferguson, an architect, who designed and commissioned additions in 1889.[1] In addition to the turreted tower which is built into the house, it has twin towers on the drive up to the house.[4] It became the retirement home of Barbara Dunn, the first British licensed radio operator, after the Second World War[5] and then became the home of the Mallinson family in 1980.[6]
