William Cecil built this house using local stone. It's predominately made from a stone called Kings Cliffe, which is limestone, an oolitic limestone which I'm told means 'shelly': lots of little dead shell creatures fossilised in the stone. He used this stone because he owned the quarry; he owned land at Kings Cliffe. There is evidence of the stone being shipped from Kings Cliffe, and then worked on site here by the freemasons that were employed to actually build the house.

Freemasons carved marks on blocks. You were judged as to what work you had done, and paid accordingly by the number of blocks or tonnage of stone you had worked. Masons had their own, almost like cipher marks that they carved into the backs of blocks so that the supervisor or foreman could pay them the right money according to their work, and there are blocks that are marked all over the house.

He assembled masons from all over the country, the true freemasons who were a remarkable travelling band of men who were skilled in the art of masonry. Teams of masons came and went between 1555 and approximately 1565 when there was a break in building. It resumed again a few years later, and in fact carried on right through until 1587 when the house was largely completed. The date that is carved in stone on the North Front is 1587, which is taken as the completion date of the house.