Aynhoe Park

Aynhoe Park, is a Grade I listed 17th-century country house rebuilt after the English Civil War on the southern edge of the stone-built village of Aynho, Northamptonshire, England. It overlooks the Cherwell valley that divides Northamptonshire from Oxfordshire. The house represents four architectural periods: Jacobean, Carolean and both the early 18th and 19th centuries. The house is in private ownership and no longer open to the public but can be hired for some private functions.

The estate was purchased in the 17th century by John Cartwright, but the house he built in 1615 was seriously damaged during the Civil War by Royalist forces following the Battle of Naseby. It was rebuilt after the Civil War to the design of Edward Marshall, master mason in Charles II's Office of Works. In 1707, Thomas Cartwright employed Thomas Archer to enlarge the Jacobean building. At the beginning of the 19th century, the house was embellished by Sir John Soane.

Aynhoe Park is a pedimented main block with lower service blocks on each side forming a courtyard. The arrangement dates from the early 18th century when Thomas Archer was commissioned to enlarge the Jacobean house. Archer, who had visited Italy, added unusual late-Baroque detailing, such as the concave surrounds to the central doorways of the service blocks. The middle of the garden front remainly largely unchanged since it was built in the 1660s.

The interiors, created by Archer with the exception of the main staircase, have been remodelled. Aynhoe Park has, however, retained the rooms designed by Soane. He was instructed to prepare designs for a thorough remodelling of the interior in 1795—drawings for this work can be seen in the Sir John Soane's Museum in London; but these interiors were never built. Soane did redesign the reception rooms along the garden front in a modest style in 1800–5 and, with the exception of the French Drawing Room, these interiors have survived and illustrate the architect's exploitation of curved surfaces. Soane also created the top-lit staircase with its iron balustrade in the south wing and the "triumphal arches" which link the main block to the service wings.

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