Maynard Family History
Easton Lodge, Essex
Little Easton Map - 1798
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Historic Development Little Easton village dates from the 12th century and is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Estaines Parva in the hundred of Dunmow, Essex. The lands and hunting lodge at Little Easton were granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1590 to Henry Maynard. Maynard, who was knighted in 1603, demolished the hunting lodge and built a large Elizabethan mansion. He was succeeded in 1640 by his son, also William, who surrounded the new house with a park planted with a double avenue of trees aligned on the west front. The estate at Easton then passed through William's son, Banastre, to his grandson Henry who became the fourth Baron Maynard. Soon after his death without issue in 1742, the grounds were recorded in an engraving by Skynner, which shows the park had been formalised with radiating avenues laid out in a patte d'oie. His brothers Grey, and then Charles succeeded him and it was during Charles, sixth Baron and first Viscount Maynard's time that Muilman's description of the grounds (1770) was published. This records a 'large park, gardens, canals, serpentine walks, shrubberies and various other useful ornaments' (Muilman 1770). The bachelor first Viscount was succeeded by his cousin Charles in 1775. Chapman and Andre's county map of 1777 shows that he quickly modernised the gardens by the replacement of the canal with an oval basin but otherwise the grounds were unchanged. By 1811 an estate map of the gardens and park are shown in a form which changes very little until the 1870s. The second Viscount died in 1824, without a direct heir, and the estate passed to his nephew Henry. Henry made many improvements to the estate, laying roads and building lodges and cottages. In February 1847 a fire almost destroyed the Elizabethan house but Henry commissioned the architect Thomas Hopper to rebuild the original central wing and to extend the house in the Gothic Revival style. When the third Viscount died in 1865 he left his estate to his three-year-old granddaughter Frances Evelyn Maynard, who in 1881 came into her inheritance and married Lord Brooke, later the fifth Earl of Warwick. In 1902 Lady Warwick commissioned the architect and garden designer Harold Peto to create an elaborate setting for the north side of the house. During the first decade of the 20th Century Easton Lodge was famous for its society gatherings but during the First World War the Essex Yeomanry used the park for training. |
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In 1913, the Countess converted Little Easton Manor’s magnificent tithe barn, one of the oldest in Essex, into the Barn Theatre (right), in which many popular actors of the time flocked to perform. In Edwardian times, Ellen Terry gave poetry readings and once acted with Lady Warwick in a scene from Romeo and Juliet. H. G. Wells and his family, who lived in a house on the estate, were also regular performers, as were Hermione Baddeley, Gracie Fields, Charlie Chaplin and George Formby. In February 1918 the house suffered a second fire and in 1919 and 1921 parts of the estate were sold. Following the 1918 fire the west wing, was re-constructed as a separate building. In 1937, the year before her death, Lady Warwick established a country nature reserve in the park. Her younger son, Maynard Greville, inherited the estate in 1938 but took little interest in it. |
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During the Second World War it was requisitioned by the War Office and the park cleared of trees to make way for an airfield. After the War, the house was demolished, leaving only the rebuilt west wing, and the gardens were abandoned. Following his death in 1960, Maynard Greville's daughter Felice Spurrier inherited the estate, built herself a house to the east of the Japanese lakes and sold the surviving buildings and grounds to Charles Wearn, who sold much of the stone paving and statuary in the gardens and in 1971 divided the buildings into three and sold them. The surviving west wing of Easton Lodge was purchased as a private house, known as Warwick House, since which time new garden features have been added and restoration of the early 20th century gardens took place.
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001484
Postcard of Little Easton Lodge
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Easton Lodge from gardens before fire
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Easton Lodge
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The site was sold recently in 2016 for approximately 4.5 million pounds. The estate agents advert said: We offer 'for sale for the first time in 43 years, rambling, Grade II-listed Little Easton Manor with its iconic Barn Theatre set in 66 acres of gardens, lakes, park and farmland, near the ancient market town of Great Dunmow, north Essex,' Read more at: http://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/country-houses-for-sale-and-property-news/essex-country-houses-character-61015#8aqt6F7RZhiJVS8R.99 |
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