ABSTRACT CPD-54 810 is a double-lined detached eclipsing binary containing two mid-F type dwarfs on an eccentric 26-d orbit. We perform a combined analysis of the extensive photometry obtained by the TESS space mission along with previously published observations to obtain a full orbital and physical solution for the system. We measure the following model-independent masses and radii: $M_1=1.3094± 0.0051\, {M_⊙ }$, $M_2=1.0896± 0.0034\, {M_⊙ }$, $R_1=1.9288± 0.0030\, {R_⊙ }$, and $R_2=1.1815± 0.0037\, {R_⊙ }$. We employ a Bayesian approach to obtain the bolometric flux for both stars from observed magnitudes, colours, and flux ratios. These bolometric fluxes combined with the stars’ angular diameters (from R1, R2 and the parallax from Gaia EDR3) lead directly to the stars’ effective temperatures: Teff, 1 = 6462 ± 43 K, and Teff, 2 = 6331 ± 43 K, with an additional systematic error of 0.8 per cent (13 K) from the uncertainty in the zero-point of the flux scale. Our results are robust against the choice of model spectra and other details of the analysis. CPD-54 810 is an ideal benchmark system that can be used to test stellar parameters measured by large spectroscopic surveys or derived from asteroseismology, and calibrate stellar models by providing robust constraints on the measured parameters. The methods presented here can be applied to many other detached eclipsing binary systems to build a catalogue of well–measured benchmark stars.