In 1348, Lady Eleanor de Louvain inherited the estate at Easton from her father. She married Sir William Bourchier and their grandson Henry, later 1st Earl of Essex, married Isabel Plantaganet, aunt of Edward IV and Richard III.

Anne Bourchier, daughter of 2nd Earl of Essex married William Parr, brother of Henry VIII’s wife Catherine Parr. After Anne eloped with her lover, the marriage was annulled and William obtained the land and titles from his ex-wife.

The Throckmorton family were the next owners of Easton and in 1558 they gave the Manor of Estaines to the Church.

Elizabeth I granted the 10,000 estate to her Private Secretary, Henry Maynard. In 1597, Maynard built a house on site of a hunting lodge – similar to Blickling Hall in Norfolk but on a smaller scale.

Almost all of the Elizabethan part of the house was destroyed by fire in 1847 although the Jacobean wing survived.

In 1865, Frances ‘Daisy’ Maynard inherited the estate at the age of 3 from her grandfather. A remarkable woman, she married Lord Brooke, later Earl of Warwick, in 1881. The Countess took an active part in the welfare of the local community and was a pioneer of education reform, especially for women. She joined the socialist movement in 1904 and stood as a parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party in the 1923 General Election – she lost to Antony Eden.

With her love of nature and animals, the Countess kept monkeys, an elephant, deer, horses and dogs and rewilded part of the estate at Easton.

The Countess created her Shakespeare and Friendship Garden at Stone Hall to the south of Easton Lodge. She dedicated the surrounding woodland to the Victorian naturalist and author, W H Hudson.

In 1902, the Countess commissioned Harold Peto to redesign the gardens around the Lodge.

In 1918, another fire damaged the Jacobean wing of the house. This part of the house was rebuilt and the Countess lived here until her death in 1938.

The estate was inherited by her son Maynard Greville although he didn’t live at Easton, preferring to live nearby in Little Canfield.

At the start of WWII, the War Office requisitioned Easton Lodge for the Army and the Home Guard. Thousands of trees were felled to make way for the Great Dunmow Airfield.

After the War, the estate was returned to Maynard. A keen dendrophile, he planted many of the trees in the Glade, demolished the Victorian house, gave the lakes to the Dunmow Fishing Club and oversaw the removal of much of the formal gardens.

In 1960s, Felice Spurrier, daughter of Maynard, sold the West Wing to Charlie Wearn. In 1971, Wearn sold the Wing to Brian and Diana Creasey who renamed it Warwick House. The Creaseys restored the house and their part of the gardens. They later obtained permission from Felice to start restoring the rest of the gardens. In 2003, the Creaseys established the Gardens of Easton Lodge Preservation Trust.

The Spurriers sold Easton Lodge estate to Land Securities. The Preservation Trust was granted a lease by Land Securities to maintain and restore the gardens.