Blackborough House

Blackborough House is a substantial country house built between 1838 and 1840 for George Francis Wyndham, the Earl of Egremont, based on designs by James Thomas Knowles, senior. The house is constructed of stuccoed brick with stone dressings and features hipped slate roofs with red ridge tiles. Its unusual layout was influenced by family circumstances, resulting in two nearly identical halves, each self-contained. One half was occupied by the Earl of Egremont, while the other was occupied by the rector of Blackborough, another member of the Wyndham family.

The building consists of a square block that contains the main rooms of both households, surrounded on three sides by an open loggia. There is a lateral entrance tower with stairs on either side, providing separate access to the two dwellings. At the rear of this block are two service wings that flank a courtyard.

Significant alterations have occurred over time, including the removal of the top stage of both entrance towers and the demolition of some central rooms. Much of the house was in a semi-derelict state during a resurvey visit in September 1985. The house is two storeys high, with an attic.

The exterior features a loggia on three sides, with the southwest front having nine bays and the side elevations having eleven bays. The roof has been lost, and the five northeast bays of the southeast front are filled with sash windows. The building includes composite pilasters, round-headed arches with vermiculated hempstone, moulded capitals, and an egg and dart frieze below moulded cornices. Where windows remain, they are hornless sashes, all framed with moulded architraves. The garret accommodation is lit by small square windows resembling gunports. The interior was not inspected but is noted to have once contained a suite of rooms designed to resemble the cabins of the Earl of Egremont's sloop.