Benington Rectory (as it was originally known) was built by the Reverend Nathaniel Dod in 1637. He built the Parsonage House “with brick, at his own charge, for the conveniency of his successors”. The date 1637 is still above the door.
Nathaniel Dod was the curate of Benington for 7 years and then Rector for a further 46 years (15 July 1636 to 14 February 1683).
The house was still in use as The Rectory when Canon Mills became Rector in 1881. It was Canon Mills, or perhaps his wife, Jessie who commissioned Pulham, the landscape architects to build the grotto in the garden.
When the Mills’ moved out in 1916, it was bought by a widow, Mrs Hargreaves of Benington Park. She did not want to look after the Benington Park estate on her own following the death of her husband in 1915. The Rectory then became known as Peterscourt, because of the figurehead of Saint Peter on the South gable-end looking towards his Church (St Peters, Benington).
Today, the house is divided into 2 with one half known as Benington Bury and the other Peterscourt.