Easton Lodge Gardens

There had been a deer park at Easton Lodge since 1302 and in 1590 Elizabeth I gave the estate of 10,000 acres to Henry Maynard (Lord Burleigh's principle assistant). In 1597 Maynard built an Elizabethan House.

The House was destroyed by fire in 1847. The house was uninsured and replaced by a new Victorian House. In 1918 fire devasted the house again when a sick monkey (yes a monkey) was hospitalised in the night nursery. It was given a coal fire and a blanket, it put the blanket on the fire and ran around the house with it!

Only part of the house was rebuilt. The house was in the hands of the war ministry in the war. In 1950 the owner pulled the house down and the gardens were left to their fate.

Over the years the estate was cut down from its initial 10,000 acres. Only 1500 acres of woodland, farmland and part of the garden remained and this was sold to Land Securities PLC in 2004.

The most famous owner of the House was Daisy Countess of Warwick and "friend" of Edward VII. She entertained lavishly at Easton Lodge and Warwick Castle until 1895 when she discovered Socialism and spent the rest of her life supporting good causes. She died in 1938.

It was her who commissioned Harold Peto to construct the gardens. These must have been superb at their height in about 1920, with French Style trelliage Pergpas and the sunken Italian Gardens.

In 1922 a snow storm wrecked the pergolas and these were never rebuilt. When Daisy's son died in 1960 much of the stonework including most of the Italian Garden was sold off for ..... £350. Criminal.

And there it would have ended but in December 1971 the Creaseys arrived. They created a garden around the west wing on the concrete and rubble of Easton Lodge and in 1993 acquired 4.5 acres of "overgrowth and junge" and began to restore the garden. In 2004 the Easton Lodge Preservation Trust was formed. Its aim is to fully restore the gardens. The Creasey's retired in 2007.

Over the years the gardens have further restored and now the walled garden is open and this year the balustrade is fully restored.

If you purchase an advance ticket you can get in at 11 rather than 1. I wandered straight in for a coffee and a bacon roll :) 

It is lovely to see the balustrade restored!! 

This wasn't here earlier in the year!! Apparently Daisy had a baby Elephant and this  is to commemorate it. Apparently it got stuck when that tanker blocked the Suez canal.

The garden only has 7 formal open days and so they always make a thing of it.

A nice wander!