Eydon Hall

Eydon Hall is a country house constructed between 1789 and 1791 for the Reverend Francis Annesley, designed by James Lewis. Later, around 1930, Sir Herbert Baker made minor alterations to the interior. The building is constructed of ironstone ashlar, with limestone dressings likely quarried on the estate, and has a hipped slate roof with stone stacks. The layout is square, incorporating an entrance hall to the north, flanked by a study and dressing room. At the centre is a top-lit staircase hall, with a drawing room and dining room to the south and south-east. A service court is located to the east.

The house is two storeys high, with a basement and attic, and five bays wide. The north front features a pediment over the three central bays. Basement windows have nine panes and plain stone frames. A central doorway is approached by stone steps with a 20th-century cast iron balustrade. The doorway has a moulded stone architrave, a flat hood on carved brackets, a four-panel double door, and a fanlight. Sash windows on either side have moulded stone architraves, whilst those in the outer bays incorporate cast iron balconies set in recessed niches. A string course runs at first floor level. Above the central three bays is a stone panel carved with swags and rosettes. First-floor sash windows are similarly detailed with moulded architraves. A dentil cornice supports a balustraded parapet.

The garden front has a portico with four unfluted Ionic columns, a straight entablature featuring a frieze of acanthus scrolls, and a balustrade with a central stone panel carved with the Annesley arms. It is approached by steps with a cast iron balustrade.

Inside, the hall contains a marble fireplace with a relief of cherubs on the frieze, and a black and white marble floor, attributed to Sir Herbert Baker around 1930. The open well staircase has a glazed oval dome and a cantilevered stone stair with a cast iron balustrade. The main rooms are characterised by narrow ornamental plaster cornices.

The plans and elevations are documented in James Lewis's "Original Designs in Architecture," Volume II, published in 1797. Francis Annesley served as Rector of Chedzoy, Somerset. Correspondence relating to the building of Eydon Hall can be found in the Northamptonshire Record Office. His nephew, Arthur Annesley, Earl of Anglesey, engaged Lewis to remodel his house at Bletchington, Oxfordshire, in 1782, incorporating a similar portico. The preceding Manor House stood east of the church and was demolished in the late 18th century.