Of the dwellings mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book it records that the Bishop of Salisbury, with Odbold as tenant held the manor, then called Pidele.

The old English name of Aethelhelm does not appear until the 13th century when Athelhampton belonged to the de Loundres family and then passed to the de Pydeles in the reign of Richard II. In 1350 Richard Martyn married the de Pydele heiress.  

Their descendant Sir William Martyn built the Great hall in or around 1485. He received a licence to enclose 160 acres of deer park and to fortify his manor.

Robert Martyn built the west wing in the early sixteenth century and added a gatehouse by 1550. Robert Martyn married Elizabeth Kelway. Sir Nicholas Martyn married Margaret Wadham. He was the last of the male line and was burried with his ancestors in the Athelhampton Aisle of St Mary's Church in Puddletown. Four Martyn daughters inherited equal shares.

The elder married Henry Brune, ancestor of the Prideaux-Brunes of Cornwall. The Brunes aquired to more shares, but the fourth remained with the Floyer family. A brune heiress married Sir Ralph Bankes of Corfe Castle, who sold Athelhampton to Sir Robert Long. Bankes would then go on to build Kingston Lacy. 

Through the Long family Athelhampton reached the fourth Earl of Mornington, nephew of the Duke of Wellington.

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