Eyton-on-Severn - the Summerhouse
On the roof, looking towards the site of the Summerhouse's pair on the left. Eyton Hall has completely vanished but logically it must have been to the right where the farm buildings now are, slightly uphill from its garden.
The Summerhouse at Eyton-on-Severn is the survivor of a pair of banqueting towers built in the garden of Eyton Hall at the turn of the seventeenth century for Sir Francis Newport. It consists of two joined octagons in stone and brick, the smaller containing a spiral staircase. Originally the ground floor with its arches would have been an open loggia; the room above would have been used during banquets and entertainments, perhaps for guests to admire and eat fanciful sweetmeats.
Eyton Hall was destroyed by fire in the eighteenth century. The other tower was included in a georgian house and was lost when that too burned (the house was rebuilt but not the tower).
The eastern tower survived in an increasing state of decay until restored in the 1980s by the Vivat Trust, a small charity that preserves historic buildings by letting them as self-catering holiday accommodation.
I spent a very pleasurable week in the Summerhouse.
Eyton-on-Severn - the Summerhouse
On the roof, looking towards the site of the Summerhouse's pair on the left. Eyton Hall has completely vanished but logically it must have been to the right where the farm buildings now are, slightly uphill from its garden.
The Summerhouse at Eyton-on-Severn is the survivor of a pair of banqueting towers built in the garden of Eyton Hall at the turn of the seventeenth century for Sir Francis Newport. It consists of two joined octagons in stone and brick, the smaller containing a spiral staircase. Originally the ground floor with its arches would have been an open loggia; the room above would have been used during banquets and entertainments, perhaps for guests to admire and eat fanciful sweetmeats.
Eyton Hall was destroyed by fire in the eighteenth century. The other tower was included in a georgian house and was lost when that too burned (the house was rebuilt but not the tower).
The eastern tower survived in an increasing state of decay until restored in the 1980s by the Vivat Trust, a small charity that preserves historic buildings by letting them as self-catering holiday accommodation.
I spent a very pleasurable week in the Summerhouse.