Aydon House

Aydon House is a house dated 1727, featuring the initials I H, which are partly hidden by ivy on the door surround. The building was altered and extended in 1885 by Sept. Oswald & Son for C.A.P. Reed. It is constructed of squared stone with ashlar dressings and has a Westmorland slate roof. The original 1727 section is rectangular and has a parallel rear wing, while the east wing, built in 1885, replaced a 17th-century house.

The south (garden) front is divided into two parts. The older house on the left is three storeys high with five bays and a symmetrical design. It has a plinth and bands at the first and second floors. The central half-glazed door is set in a raised roll-moulded surround. The ground and first floors feature 19th-century plate glass sash windows in older openings that have wedge lintels designed to imitate voussoirs. The second-floor windows are shortened sashes located only in the centre and end bays. The gables are coped with moulded kneelers, and there are stepped and corniced end stacks.

To the right is the lower east wing, which is two storeys high and has four bays, built in a similar style. It includes a half-glazed door in the third bay, a coped right gable with moulded kneelers and a finial, and a stepped and corniced ridge stack. Attached to the far right is a single-storey boilerhouse with a 12-pane sash window and a stepped and corniced ridge stack.

The left return features a five-bay wooden verandah from 1885, supported by turned columns and adorned with four-centred arches. Set forward to the left, the gable end of the rear wing has a two-storey bow window with plate-glass sashes; the second floor includes two four-pane sashes with a round window above, all within raised moulded surrounds. The rear elevation displays a projecting flat-roofed porch with a moulded cornice, while a timber loggia to the right has five steps leading up to a basket-arched entrance flanked by three-bay dwarf arcades with turned columns and round arches, above walls with moulded coping.

Inside, there is a doorway with a broad-chamfered surround at the east end of the old block, which may be a remnant of the 17th-century house. The interior also features a good early 18th-century dogleg stair with closed strings, turned balusters, and a moulded handrail, located in the rear wing.