Eydon Hall

EYDON SP54NW 3/54 Eydon Hall 11/9/53

GV I

Country house. 1789-91 for the Rev. Francis Annesley by James Lewis. Minor internal alterations c.1930 by Sir Herbert Baker. Ironstone ashlar with limestone dressings, said to have been quarried in the estate. Hipped slate roof, stone stacks. Square plan with entrance to hall to north, flanked by Study and Dressing Room. Central top-lit Staircase Hall. Drawing Room and Dining Room to south and south-east. Service court to east. 2 storeys, basement and attic, 5 bays. Entrance to north has pediment over 3 centre bays. 9-pane sash windows with plain stone frames in basement. Central doorway approached by stone steps with C20 cast iron balustrade. Doorway has moulded stone architrave, flat hood on carved brackets and 4-panel double door with fanlight. Sash windows on either side have moulded stone architraves. Similar windows in outer bays have cast iron balconies and are set in recessed niches. String course at first floor level. Stone panel above 3 centre bays carved with swags and rosettes. Sash windows on first floor with moulded architraves. Dentil cornice and balustraded parapet. Garden front has portico with 4 unfluted Ionic columns, straight entablature with frieze of acanthus scrolls and balustrade with stone panel in centre carved with Annesley arms. It is approached by stone steps with cast iron balustrade. Interior: Hall has marble fireplace, the frieze with a relief of cherubs. Black and white marble floor said to be c,1930 by Sir Herbert Baker. Open well staircase with glazed oval dome and cantilevered stone stair with cast iron balustrade. Main rooms have narrow ornamental plaster cornices. "A house of moderate size and great, if reticent elegance" (Pevsner). The plans and elevations are illustrated in James Lewis's "original Designs in Architecture", Vol.II, 1797. Francis Annesley was Rector of Chedzoy, Somerset. Some of his letters referring to the building of Eydon Hall in the Northamptonshire Record Office. His nephew, Arthur Annesley, Earl of Anglesey, employed Lewis to remodel his house at Bletchington, Oxon in 1782, to which he added a similar portico. The old Manor House stood east of the church and was demolished in the late C18. (Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.211; H.M. Colvin, Biographical Dictionary of Architects, p.518; M. Binney, Eydon hall, Country Life, Vol.149, January 21st, 1971, p.128-131).

Listing NGR: SP5397849791