At our May meeting we welcomed Garry Matthews to give a talk on the History of Easton Lodge and the Countess and her garden. Originally built as a hunting lodge, in similar style to the Epping Lodge, it was gifted by Elizabeth 1 to Henry Maynard in 1590 and he subsequently added a Jacobean style wing. Unfortunately, a fire in 1847 burnt down the Elizabethan wing. It was decided to knock down the remains and build a new house in the Victorian Gothic style for £12,000. In 1865 the family then had the misfortune for the heir to die before his father and the sole beneficiary on the death of the third Viscount Maynard was his grand-daughter Francis Evelyn Maynard, commonly called Daisy, when she was 3 years old. In 1880 she married Lord Brook (son of the Earl of Warwick) who was Equerry to Prince Leopold, Queen Victoria’s youngest son.
Daisy put her own stamp on the property and estate. In the garden she kept a menagerie of animals and had a sunken Italian garden with 100-foot pool dug out by Salvation Army Inebriates from the Hadleigh Citadel in Southend. She was famous for her week-end parties and even persuaded the Great Eastern Railway to construct a Halt for the Lodge. Well known for her friendship with the Prince of Wales she instigated the 6am Daisy Bell call for guests to return to the correct bedroom before the servants came upstairs. Locally she created Bigods School in Great Dunmow, Studley Castle Horticultural School for Women and the Essex Needlework School in Easton Lodge that sold their wares at the Countess of Warwick Shop in Bond Street, London. A frank conversation with Robert Blatchford, the Editor of The Clarion newspaper, who had published a damming appraisal of her lifestyle in 1895, resulted in a change of outlook and she went on to host the TUC general conference in 1926. She died in 1938 and offers to gift the house to the TUC and the National Trust being declined, it was inherited by her son, Maynard Greville, who was more interested in trees so the Elizabethan wing was demolished and a glade of silver birch planted, letting the gardens and estate to run down. In WW2 the estate was requisitioned and over 10,000 ancient trees removed to make an airfield for the USAF and later RAF. Post war it was left to go to ruin. In 1970 Brian & Diana Creasey purchased the site intending to restore the gardens on their own. In 2003 the Gardens of Easton Lodge Trust was set up to assist in this work and took over fully in 2011. The ongoing remarkable work to restore the gardens is complicated by having two owners of the land. The House and 6 acres are a private residence whilst the remaining 16 acres is owned as part of a larger investment by Land Securities due to the proximity to Stansted Airport. This causes many grant applications being blocked (due to parent company wealth) and Land Securities will only financially support works that impact on their Health & Safety responsibilities. Hence open days and talks to interested groups are required to help fund the work. The History Society visited the gardens in 2017 and the photo shows the pond with broken balustrade whilst the recent press cutting shows how much has been achieved. It was a very enjoyable evening’s talk. Quentin Spear
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