Eastbury House Including Attached West Courtyard And Gateway.

Eastbury House, including the attached west courtyard and gateway, is a country house with service ranges, constructed between 1717 and 1738 by John Vanbrugh for George Dodington and George Bubb. Later 19th-century additions were made. The house is built of greensand ashlar, with slate roofs, end ashlar stacks, and stone copings. The main facade now faces south and is symmetrical, with nine bays arranged as 3:3:3. A central block rises as a three-story tower with a plain parapet. The ground floor features an open loggia of round-headed arches with moulded archivolts, plain imposts, and rectangular piers. Behind the loggia are round-headed sash windows with glazing bars and a central panelled door. The outer bays each display three bulls-eye windows with ashlar architraves beneath a plain entablature with a moulded cornice. The central tower has three round-headed sash windows with ashlar architraves connected at the springing line by a plat band, and above this, a further plat band leads to three smaller, segmentally headed sash windows. Below the parapet is a modillioned cornice. The detailing of the other facades is generally similar.

The courtyard gateway is also of greensand ashlar and features a single round arch with plain plinths and string courses to the piers. An entablature sits above, supported by a corbel table. Buttresses flank the sides, topped with stone scrolls. Two large trees have grown within the upper structure of the gateway.

Interior features, dating mainly from around 1800, include several fireplaces, pedimental doorways, a staircase with turned balusters, square newels, a moulded handrail, and a dado with fielded panelling. The north range retains an original stable staircase featuring turned balusters, moulded handrails, and plain newel posts.

Originally one of Vanbrugh’s most significant houses, and his third largest after Blenheim and Castle Howard, the original mansion was demolished between approximately 1775 and 1782 due to its condition, and its materials were subsequently reused in numerous farmhouses and cottages in the surrounding area.