Euston Park, Thetford, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

In 1087 Euston appears in Domesday as a manor belonging to the abbey of Bury St Edmunds and the manor house stood on the site of the present Hall. In 1666 Henry Bennet, later Earl of Arlington, purchased the estate and remodelled the Elizabethan hall into a grand mansion in the French style (guidebook). With his wealth and power he not only built a house of palace proportions, but also developed a 33 hectare pleasure ground with the help of John Evelyn (1620-1705) comprising walks, clipped hedges, radiating allées and a canal between the mansion and the River Blackbourne (Dymond 1995). In 1671 Arlington received a licence to impark 2000 acres (about 830 hectares) and again with Evelyn he developed the park for hunting and growing trees. He planted a huge straight avenue known as The Duke's Ride running west to the gates of Euston Hall. Lord Arlington's daughter married Henry FitzRoy, first Duke of Grafton, and during the 1730s and 1740s their son, the second Duke, commissioned William Kent to prepare designs to remodel the mansion and to embellish the park in the new style. In the event it was Matthew Brettingham's designs for the mansion which were carried out between 1750 and 1756, but Kent's schemes for the park were followed, including the building of The Temple in the east park and the Triumphal Arch or West Lodge in the newly extended west park. Kent also provided planting proposals for the east, west and south sections of the park. The third Duke brought in Lancelot Brown (1716-83) between 1767 and 1769 to further improve the landscape. Although Brown's work is not precisely recorded he is thought to have been responsible for the serpentine Broadwater in the pleasure grounds. During the 19th century the park was further modified by successive dukes - new clumps were planted in the south park in 1837 and 1841 and the perimeter belts were strengthened. In 1902, during the time of the seventh Duke, a fire destroyed the west and south wings of the mansion. These were rebuilt in 1905 but the house was ultimately reduced in 1952, leaving only the north, and part of the west, wings. The tenth Duke succeeded in 1936 and the site remains (1998) in private ownership.