From a Civil War target to a Noel Gallagher birthday party

During the 17th century, the stone-built house at Aynhoe Park was seriously damaged by Royalist forces during the English Civil War. It was rebuilt to the design of Edward Marshall, the master mason in Charles II's Office of Works. Over the following centuries, the estate underwent massive transformations by architects like Thomas Archer, who added late-Baroque detailing in 1707, and Sir John Soane, who designed reception rooms and a top-lit staircase in the early 19th century. The estate remained the home of the Cartwright family until 1954, when Cartwright and his only son and heir were killed in a car crash.

In the 1950s, the Country Houses Association acquired the estate and converted the main block and service wings into a retirement apartment complex, which remained in use for fifty years. In 2006, event promoter James Perkins acquired the estate and remodelled it for commercial activities. The service wings were converted to office use, while the retirement apartments were transformed into a venue for catered weddings, parties, and conferences. The venue featured 41 en suite bedrooms, a spa with a pool, a catering kitchen, and licensed bars. It became a popular site for celebrity weddings, including a 50th birthday party for musician Noel Gallagher.

In mid-2020, the US furniture group RH acquired the estate and rebranded it as RH England, The Gallery at Aynho Park. The site now serves as a retail and hospitality experience, featuring three restaurants and three secondary hospitality experiences. The estate also hosts an acclaimed sustainable white deer farm that produces high-end venison. Visitors can still see the gardens laid out by Capability Brown and the interiors that illustrate Soane's exploitation of curved surfaces, maintaining the estate's Grade I listed status.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons