Italian Villa

The Italian Villa, located on Jap Lane in the parish of Edensor, is a building that dates back to the early 18th century and was extensively remodeled around 1830-1840, likely by architects Paxton and Robertson. Originally thought to have been an inn, it now serves as a house. The structure features rubblestone at the rear and small blocks of coursed sandstone at the front, accented with ashlar dressings and raised quoins. It has a striking overhanging Swiss Chalet style roof made of Welsh slate, supported by large paired wooden brackets, and includes a pair of ashlar gable stacks. The building stands three storeys tall.

The symmetrical north elevation consists of two bays, with a central doorway that has a stepped, eared architrave and a panelled door. This doorway is flanked by square windows that have bead moulded ashlar surrounds and sills supported on paired brackets. The windows feature cross casements with round-arched glazing bars. There is a broad timber porch open to the north, with a splat baluster balustrade above. A tall first-floor doorway, also with a moulded architrave and segmental pediment, leads to a panelled door, flanked by two-light windows that have bead moulded surrounds and square section mullions, with slab hoodmoulds on paired moulded brackets and round-arched glazing bars. Above, there are two smaller windows of a similar style.

The west gable end features two round-arched windows on the ground floor with sills on square brackets and impost blocks, along with tall decorative rectangular panels above and decorative corbelling at the base of the stack. A window to the right has panelled jambs and a bracketed slab hoodmould, with a triplet of round-arched windows above. The rear elevation includes a traditional tall staircase window.

Inside, there is an early 18th-century splat baluster dogleg staircase that rises through all three storeys. The villa was remodeled as part of the picturesque model village designed by Paxton for the Sixth Duke of Devonshire.