The house was built for Rowland Dawkin, a member of the Gower family, in 1585.[1] In 1820, Major Thomas Penrice of Great Yarmouth acquired the manor: in June 1831 he was ordered by the Marquess of Bute, Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan, to tackle civil unrest associated with the Reform Bill.[2] To his huge embarrassment, Penrice and his Yeomanry troops were disarmed by a large mob of rioters and, following an official inquiry, the local Yeomanry unit was re-organised by the Government.[3] The house passed to Penrice's nephew and, through the nephew's daughter, to the Lyons family.[3] Admiral of the Fleet Sir Algernon Lyons died there in 1908.[4] In the 1930s it was bought by Arthur Thomas, a Swansea businessman, and in 1949 it was bought by the Oxfordshire Education Committee.[5] It is now an outdoor learning centre.[6]
The park surrounding the house is listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.[7]
