Hyde House

Hyde House is a small country house built in the early 18th century, with some alterations made in the early 19th century. The exterior features painted stucco with ashlar lines and a slate roof behind a parapet. The house is two storeys high and has six bays, with double hung sash windows in moulded architrave frames. The central two windows on each floor are mullioned and transomed 2-light casements; the first-floor windows have leaded glazing and stained glass panels, while the ground-floor windows feature lattice glazing. The central entrance has a glazed door framed by a late 17th-century carved surround with a segmental pediment and a frieze decorated with cherub heads and curved brackets on beasts. There is a fanlight with stained glass above the door, and on either side are old stone heraldic shields displaying the arms of Woburn Abbey and the Russell family.

The west elevation has six bays of sash windows, while the garden elevation to the south has seven bays, featuring tall triple sash windows on the left side of the ground floor, and a central wooden door case with a pilaster surround and frieze. There is a service wing on the left, built in 1929, which is roughcast and gabled, and it connects to an 18th-century flint and brick cottage and stable wing that has an old tile roof and 19th-century cast iron stalls and partitions inside.

Inside the house, there is a late 18th-century staircase with twisted balusters. The Morning Room features a moulded plaster cornice and an 18th-century carved oak chimney piece with a caryatid and royal arms on the iron fireback. The Dining Room has an impressive plaster cornice with urns and a carved chimney piece with the original iron fireback. The Drawing Room includes an ornamental frieze, a plain cornice, bolection panelling, and a white marble chimney piece adorned with large scrolls and an old iron fireback.

Historically, Hyde House was formerly known as Chesham Woburn Manor and belonged to Woburn Abbey. After the dissolution, it came into the possession of the Russell family. The house was home to Robert Plumer Ward, a politician and writer, from 1804 to 1832, and Isaac D'Israeli from 1825 to 1826, during which time Benjamin Disraeli wrote his second novel, "Contarini Fleming," while living there.