Aynhoe Park

Aynhoe Park, no longer open to the public, 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 in Banbury, Oxfordshire. It overlooks the Cherwell valley, which divides Northamptonshire from Oxfordshire.

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. This 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. However, Aynhoe Park has retained the rooms designed by Sir John Soane. Soane was instructed to prepare designs for a thorough remodelling of the interior in 1795—the drawings for this work can be seen in the Soane Museum in London. Unfortunately, these interiors were never built. However, 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. The surroundings represent an early formal garden with landscape park. Gardens were laid out by Mr Guilliam 1701–14, and the park laid out 1760–63 by Capability Brown.

More recently, the Hall was owned by the Country Houses Association until it went into liquidation in 2003. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3319953.stm]

External links

* [http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=233936&mode=quick Aynhoe Park at Images of England website; detailed architectural information]