Eyton Hall

A manor at Eyton has been identified since the Domesday Book (1087), and the Eyton family resided here since then until 1962. In the early C19 the house consisted of a 1:3:1 bay three storey block. This earlier building was considerably altered and added to in the mid-C19, with a colonnade and balcony above, a central pedimented doorway, 2 canted bow wings, and a symmetrical stuccoed south-eastern facade. The present house thus dates principally from the Georgian/Regency era and in the C19 was the home of Thomas Campbell Eyton, a well-known ornithologist, author and friend of Charles Darwin, with whom he was at Cambridge. He assembled one of the largest ornithological collections in the country and added a galleried museum wing to house it (demolished in the 1960’s). T.C. Eyton also established extensive pleasure gardens with woodland walks and ponds, introduced notable specimen trees, many of which still survive, and emparked a substantial area to the south of the Hall creating a deer park, through which ran the main drive up to the Hall (originally lined by an avenue of walnut trees).
the gardens, outbuildings and secondary accommodation declined and fell into general disrepair and neglect through the C20 and the present owners have embarked on an ongoing process of restoration and renovation since 2018.