The house began as a modest timber-framed farmhouse constructed for John Fetherston between 1556 and 1560. The last member of the Fetherstone family died in 1876. In 1904 the house was purchased by Birmingham industrialist Alfred Ash. It was inherited by Graham Baron Ash in 1925, who spent the following two decades creating a house of Tudor character. He purchased an extensive collection of 16th and 17th century furniture, some obtained from nearby Baddesley Clinton. The great barn of the farm was converted into a Tudor-style hall with sprung floor for dancing, and was connected to the main house by the addition of a Long Gallery in 1931.
In 1941, Ash donated the house and gardens to the National Trust
