Easton Lodge Gardens, Bishop's Stortford, England

This is one of Peto's finest works. The Japanese gardens were the largest he created. He also created an Italianate garden with a large pool and the cobbled courtyard and fountain.

Other areas include the formal lawns and flower beds, the rose walk with its later pavilion, a bosquet and the Stirling Walk and Glade, named to commemorate the bomber crews of World War II who were stationed here and never returned.

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

Gardens designed by Harold Peto in 1902, incorporating a late 17th/early 18th century grove.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Easton Lodge lies just to the north of the A120 Bishop's Stortford to Braintree road, on the west side of the B184 which links Dunmow to Thaxted. The site here registered covers an area of about 17 hectares, bounded to the north and east by farmland and to the south and west by former parkland carriage drives, now farm access tracks. The gardens are set in an area of generally flat land, in a developed part of the Essex countryside.

REFERENCES

P Muilman, A New and Complete History of Essex III, (1770)

J Horticulture and Cottage Gardener 13, (1886), pp 231-232; 29 (1894), p 156

Gardener's Magazine, (2 March 1907), p 135

Country Life, 22 (23 November 1901), p 738; 25 (1 May 1909), p 478

C Holme, The Gardens of England: Midland and Eastern Counties (1908)

Gardeners' Chronicle, (27 September 1913), p 154

M Binney and A Hills, Elysian Gardens (1979)

F Spurrier, The Maynards of Easton Lodge (1992)

F Cowell, English Heritage Register Review report (1997)

The Gardens of Easton Lodge, guidebook, (1999)

I Magnus and R Spencer-Jones, The History of Easton Lodge (2000) [private research on behalf of Brian Creasey; copy on EH file]

Maps

R Agass, Map of Ugley, Tilty etc, 1593 (Essex Record Office)

Survey of the Maynard estate, 1730 (D/DMg P1), (Essex Record Office)

J Chapman and P Andre, A map of the county of Essex from an actual survey ..., 1777 (Essex Record Office)

Survey of the Maynard estates, 1811 (D/DMg P2), (Essex Record Office)

Tithe map for Little Easton parish, 1839 (D/CT 126B), (Essex Record Office)

Survey of the Maynard estates, c 1850 (D/DMg P8), (Essex Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1876

OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1897

3rd edition published 1920

Illustrations

T Skynner, Engraving of the house, gardens, and park, 1732 (copy held at Easton Lodge Museum)

Archival items

Photographs of the Peto garden, 1907 (in CL 1909)

Many of the estate papers are held at the Essex Record Office (D/DMg).

Description written: August 2000

Amended: January 2001

Edited: September 2001