 It may have been built by Richard Croft.The Croft family was recorded as living in the structure in the Domesday Book.The Croft family suffered financially following the South Sea Bubble and in 1746 sold the estate to Richard Knight (1693-1765), the eldest son and heir of Richard Knight (1659-1745), of Downton Hall, in the parish of Downton on the Rock in Herefordshire, a wealthy ironmaster who operated the Bringewood Ironworks and founded a large fortune and family dynasty.