Audley End, Saffron Walden, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Audley End was built between about 1605 and 1614, on the site of the abbey of Walden, for Thomas Howard, first Earl of Suffolk. His surveyor was Bernard Janssen and in 1614 Suffolk began to lay out extensive formal gardens. Following conviction for embezzlement however, he suffered great financial trouble and his property declined. Suffolk died in 1626, leaving his son Theophilus to bear the twin burden of his debts and enormous maintenance costs. When James, the third Earl inherited in 1640 the situation had not improved and after the Restoration the house and some parkland were sold to Charles II in 1668.

Extensive works to the house were undertaken by Christopher Wren (1632-1723) but successive monarchs showed little interest in the property which in 1701 was returned to the Howards and settled on Henry, Earl of Bindon, who assumed the title of sixth Earl of Suffolk in 1708. The sixth Earl commissioned Sir John Vanburgh (1664-1726) to make improvements which resulted in the demolition of part of the house, after which the property passed to Charles William Howard, seventh Earl, who died in 1722 at the age of twenty-nine. The estate was left to his younger uncle, Charles Howard, while the title passed to his elder uncle, Edward. When Edward died, Charles became the ninth Earl and in 1725 he commissioned a plan for a great formal garden by the French architect Dubois. A less ambitious landscape scheme was eventually implemented however, possibly to a design by Charles Bridgeman (d 1738). Charles Howard died in 1733 and was succeeded by his son Henry, the tenth Earl, who made further changes to the house. Henry died childless in 1745 and the property was divided between four co-heirs. One of these, Elizabeth, Countess of Portsmouth, purchased the house and part of the park in 1751 to add to her share, commissioning John Phillips and George Shakespear to demolish the east, and parts of the north and south, wings. Lady Portsmouth bequeathed her property to her nephew John Griffin Whitwell, who inherited in 1762 and assumed the name Griffin Griffin.

Sir John, later Baron Braybrooke, carried out extensive reconstruction and repair work on the house from 1763 onwards, in the same year that he commissioned Lancelot Brown (1716-1783) to landscape the grounds. Richard Woods also carried out work within the pleasure grounds for Sir John, in 1780. Braybrooke died in 1797 without heirs, so the estate and the title passed to Richard Aldworth Neville, son of the Countess of Portsmouth's heir. When his son Richard, the third Lord Braybrooke, inherited in 1825, Henry Harrison was brought in to restore the house and William Sawrey Gilpin (1762-1843) to advise on the gardens, which in 1831 were laid out in a formal parterre. Richard died in 1858 and was succeeded by his eldest son Richard Cornwallis who survived his father by only three years. The fifth Lord, Richard's brother Charles, continued to maintain the property until his death in 1902 when he was succeeded by his younger brother, the Honourable Reverend Latimer Neville. When the seventh Lord Braybrooke died in 1941 the house was requisitioned for war use and in 1948 it passed to the State in lieu of death duties. It is now maintained by English Heritage.

The site remains (2000) in divided ownership.