The main walls and turret stairs date from King John and the Middle Ages; the richly carved porches and mullioned windows and oak stairs are Jacobean; the Classic West wing and balustraded terraces of the Walled North garden were built during the reign of Charles I. The South Court and Gatehouses were built by Robert Cecil about 1612. The rest of the garden with its lawns, roses and cut yews follow the original plans as laid out by John Tradescant, gardener to King James I and Robert Cecil, the Yew Allee and some of the hedges being of that date. Cranborne Manor has been almost continually lived in for well over 300 years, ever since it was acquired by the Cecil family in the early 17th Century.