Haydon Hill

Haydon Hill is a large house, built between 1841 and 1843 by Decimus Burton for F.G.Fonnereau, and extended around 1890 for R.P.Attenborough. It is a yellow brick building with stone dressings and slate roofs. The asymmetrical design is of the Picturesque villa style, featuring an Italianate tower.

The front of the house has two storeys and six bays. It incorporates a projecting timber mutule eaves detail and a hipped roof with multiple stacks topped with grouped octagonal shafts. A central bay has an entrance situated on a diagonally extruded corner, featuring a six-panelled door with a rectangular fanlight containing later stained glass. The fanlight sits beneath a cast-iron Tuscan porch with a heavy cornice and parapet. Three bays to the left are set back and have glazing bar sashes with stone sills and rubbed brick heads, with the upper floor windows being round-headed. To the right of the entrance, one bay projects slightly forward and contains a tall staircase window on the first floor. Further along to the right, a tower rises with tall round-headed windows—three on the ground floor, two on the first floor. The right return side has an extruded stack with three octagonal shafts, and to the far left, a small link connects to a three-bay extension built in similar materials but with a slightly lower ridge and rectangular shafts.

The garden front is dominated by the tallest tower, rising three storeys with multiple windows – three on the ground floor, one on the first floor, and two on the second. The first floor round-headed windows feature rusticated voussoirs. It has an octagonal shafted roof with deep eaves. A ground-floor lean-to extension contains an entrance flanked by pilasters. The main block is two storeys high with three bays. At a 45-degree angle, a further three-bay link connects to the block added around 1890. A ground-floor verandah with a Tuscan colonnade, under a raking leaded roof, turns an angle and links the tower with the c.1890 block to the right. The later block is constructed of grey brick with orange sandstone dressings. A tall plinth is present, and two ground-floor aedicular windows flank an extruded chimney breast, which features a relief of a boar with an inscription. The first floor window in the breast is sheltered by a pediment and balustraded parapet, with four shafts similar to those on the earlier block. The right return has a semi-octagonal full-height bay with a mullion and transom window and a balustraded parapet.

To the rear of the house are rainwater heads inscribed with the initials RPA and LMA, flanking a canted bay and an upper six-light ribbon window with stained glass. Behind the earlier yellow brick extension and concealed by a later addition is a brick niche containing a statue of a king.

The interior includes an original staircase to the right of the entrance. A hall in the c.1890 block features a chimneypiece with bas-reliefs and the initials R.P.Attenborough. The house occupies a prominent site, formerly occupied by Dr. T.Monro's cottage orné.