Avebury Manor was originally a Benedictine priory. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, the building was owned successively by Sir William Sharrington, of Lacock Abbey; William Dunch, an Auditor of the London Mint, who bought it in 1551 and built the core of the present house; Sir James Mervyn, the second husband of his widow, who extended it, from about 1600 to 1601; and Colonel Leopold Jenner (brother of Sir Walter Jenner, Bt, of Lytes Carey, who probably introduced the two still life and landscape pictures inset in the panelling.

From 1935 it was owned by Alexander Keiller (of the marmalade family) who scientifically excavated the pre-historic monument at Avebury, which was bought by the National Trust in 1943, whose finds can be seen in the museum next door and which was painted in 1993 by Julian Vilarrubi (b.1964) for the Trust’s Foundation for Art. The Marquess of Ailesbury owned the Manor from 1976 until 1981 and finally the National Trust bought it in 1991.