LITTLE EASTON MANOR

Little Easton, Dunmow,

LITTLE EASTON MANOR

Little Easton, Dunmow, Essex, CM6 2JN

Gt Dunmow 2 miles, Stansted Airport/M11 9 miles, Bishop’s Stortford 11 miles, (Liverpool Street Station 38 minutes), 15 miles, 47 miles.

A fine Grade II Listed Manor House set in magnificent grounds with lakes, 2/3 cottages, outbuildings and a splendid ‘Barn Theatre’, situated in a quiet hamlet in the North Essex countryside.

Reception hall • Cloakroom • Drawing room • Study • Dining room • Sitting room Kitchen/breakfast room • Office • Extensive cellars. 8 bedrooms • 5 bathrooms. Outbuildings • Garages • Annexe with 2 bedrooms • Two cottages with 2 and 3 bedrooms respectively. Beautiful formal gardens and grounds including tennis court and swimming pool. Lakes and parkland In all about 18.33 acres. +44 (0)20 7075 2806 33 Margaret Street London W1G 0JD [email protected]

www.savills.co.uk

Your attention is drawn to the Important Notice on the last page of the text. SITUATION/LOCATION

Little Easton Manor is situated in the hamlet of Little Easton area is well known for good schooling; Chelmsford Girls’ and or the East Essex Hunt. Additionally Little Easton borders the only two miles away from the ancient market town Great King Edwards Grammar School both regularly top the league which is a regular venue for local angling and Dunmow which is famous for the Dunmow Flitch Trials, and tables; the private schools Bishop’s Stortford College and canoe clubs. offers many amenities; these include restaurants, hotels, pubs, are also near-by. The property is ideally situated for transport links: Stansted bars, a leisure centre and professional services; nursery, primary The property lies in the heart of equestrian country and is airport is only 9 miles away and London is easily accessible by and secondary schools; shops, supermarkets and a market surrounded by bridleways and quiet roads, ideal for riding. road via the M11 only 46 miles or by rail with regular trains to every Tuesday. There are further facilities available at Bishop’s There are several hunts locally with the Essex and Suffolk Hunt London Liverpool Street Station from Bishop’s Stortford in 38 Stortford and Chelmsford 11 miles and 15 miles respectively. The minutes. HISTORY

The current house is built on a site that shows traces of Roman activity and is first recorded in the Domesday Book. The Manor of Estaines, as it was known, was held by the Windsor family and then passed to Godfrey de Louvaine (brother of the Duke of Brabant). In 1365 Eleanor de Louvaine married Sir William Bourchier of Stansted Hall, , uniting two great estates. The property and surrounding land remained with the Bourchiers for several generations and was favoured by the Plantagenets for hunting and hawking and it is rumoured that in 1460 Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville spent some of their honeymoon in the Manor House. The house later became home to a Plantagenet princess when Henry de Bourchier, created 1st Earl of Essex married Isabel Plantagenet, Aunt of Edward IV and Richard III. Isabel’s face can be seen above the sitting room fireplace. The property was consequently owned by their granddaughter Anne de Bourchier who married William Parr, brother of Henry VIII sixth wife: although their marriage was annulled in 1543, Parr obtained his ex- wife’s lands and titles. Following Parr’s support of Lady Jane Grey the lands were later confiscated and passed to Henry Maynard, who rebuilt the manor in 1624 on the site of the medieval house. The property remained with the Maynard family, who again rebuilt the present property in 1840, until the 20th Century when it was sold to actor, film and theatre director/producer Basil Dean of Ealing Studios/“Pearl and Dean” fame. The property was bought by the parents of the current owners in 1971 from Lord and Lady Inchcape. The Barn Theatre, a historic former tithe barn, has hosted many famous names. Converted to a theatre in 1913 by The Countess of Warwick, it has been the venue for many events: In Edwardian times Ellen Terry gave poetry readings and on one occasion acted with Lady Warwick in a scene from Romeo & Juliet. During the First World War there was a performance of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ that featured H G Wells. Between the wars, the Teachers’ Annual Summer School was held in The Barn Theatre with a variety of visiting lecturers including George Bernard Shaw. Numerous other celebrities have visited Little Easton and The Barn Theatre since, including: Hermione Baddeley, Gracie Fields, Charlie Chaplin, George Formby and many others. Several films were made in and around the grounds during Basil Dean’s time, including an Edgar Wallace thriller and ‘Midshipman Easy’. More recently an episode of BBC’s Lovejoy was filmed in the grounds. Since 1971, Rowan Atkinson, Tim Rice, Bill Cotton and Esther Rantzen have attended various functions at The Barn Theatre which has also been used as a venue for the educational “Plowden Conference” with both Lady Plowden and Margaret Thatcher delighted by the venue. In recent years it has continued to be used, together with the smaller Turkey Barn to put on plays and concerts, and for functions including weddings and parties. The adjoining Turkey Barn can also be used for smaller functions on its own. Both have separate access past the neighbouring church to a car park on the opposite side from the main house in part of the ancient moat. THE PROPERTY Approached by a short drive past the Church, through magnificent ‘lantern’ wrought iron gates, the Manor sits opposite the charming open courtyard which is enclosed by period outbuildings, the barns, the cottages and the house. Little Easton Manor was described by a visitor from the East as “A jewel of , perfectly set”. It is very special with its superb setting amongst formal gardens, buildings and extensive grounds with lovely sweeping lawns down to the Great Pond and its central island and fountain. The house itself dates mainly from the 17th Century and is built of oak studding and brick with particularly fine pargetting bearing many local and intricate patterns. The Manor is entered through a covered porch with a double sized front door to a wide, quarry tiled entrance hall which leads all the way through to the rear garden. The principal accommodation on the ground floor stems from the hallway with doors to the sitting room, drawing room, dining room, study, cloakroom and butlers passage. As one would expect from a grade II listed house, there are magnificent period features in all of the reception rooms including large fireplaces with wood burning stoves, exposed beams and lead mullioned windows. The large kitchen/breakfast room has direct access from the front garden and doors to the kitchen courtyard, cloakroom and office. The spiral stone staircase from the Butlers Passage goes up to the first floor. The ancient, magnificent cellar with a music room, wine den and stores can be accessed either from the Butlers Passage or from the dining room where a short staircase leads past a mural originally commissioned by Basil Dean. An attractive oak staircase leads from the main hall up to the beamed first floor landing with intriguingly shaped ceilings, alcoves, wooden panelling and lead mullioned windows. There are six bedrooms and three bathrooms in the main part of the house. The main bedroom has stunning views overlooking the garden and down to the Great Pond. The fourth bedroom off the main landing leads through the secondary landing at the top of the fine spiral stairs to two further bedrooms and two bathrooms. It is possible to access the attached annexe-cottage from the end of the wing corridor.

THE BARNS, OUTBUILDINGS AND COTTAGES

Positioned around a wonderful enclosed courtyard which is now laid to lawn are the Barn Theatre, Turkey Barn, outbuildings and two cottages with garaging to the rear. There is an annexe-cottage adjoining the south-east wing of the Manor House which is built of brick with rendered plasterwork under a tiled roof. It has two large reception rooms, a kitchen and utility room on the ground floor. On the first floor are two bedrooms and a family bathroom. The main bedroom has an area currently used as a laundry but with potential for an en-suite bathroom. There are two further semi-detached cottages, one with three bedrooms the other with two bedrooms. The property is currently let on AST. The property benefits from many outbuildings including garaging and stores along the drive, and around the courtyard at the rear of the main house. Annexe - FirstFloor

First Floor

Annexe - Ground Floor

Cellar

Ground Floor Cottages No. 1 & 2 - Ground Floor

Turkey Barn

Cottages No. 1 & 2 - First Floor

Barn Theatre

Stbales and Garaging THE GROUNDS The property sits central to the grounds of approximately 18.33 acres and is made up of formal landscaped gardens, woods and pasture land. The formal gardens to the front of the house were re-designed by Alan Carr Linford (one of The Queen’s favoured water colour artists). The front of the Manor looks onto the formal garden with superb topiary hedging shaped into Coachman’s Hats through the ages. Along its eastern edge a large terrace runs between two of the remaining castle turrets and overlooks the sweeping lawns down to the Great Pond and Weir Pond beyond. From the back of the house, steps lead down to a large lower terrace with a statue and fountain. To the left is a tennis court surrounded by lawns. From the lower terrace a maze of paths lead through the parterre, past an old horse trough to the kidney shaped swimming pool with barbeque area. From the horse trough one can look left and right to see both of the original Carriage Gates; one can follow the old carriage way through a wooded path down to the Great Pond and then across the dyke past two ancient wooden bathing huts and to the boathouse on the other side. Built as part of a movie set, the boathouse nestles neatly into the corner of Great Pond with the paddock behind it; in the past this paddock has been used as a venue for large open air concerts and has two separate accesses. The huge mirror carp and good sized tench along with the beautiful scenery make the Great Pond, especially, a popular fishing spot; currently fishing permits are available on a daily basis. Map Centre 560,360 223,661

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ond 85.8m g P Little Easton Lon 3386a 0.06ha ond h P urc Ch 3886a 2782 0.13ha 0.07ha 3480 86.1m 0.02ha

2279 0.08ha 3378 0.04ha Pond LITTLE 1976 0.03ha Boat House Tanks EASTON 3974 MANOR 0.22ha 88.1m ) m 4174 u I ( 86.4m s s h u t e 0.01ha a 1572 s P ) 0.08ha 2069 m u ( 2671 0.19ha h 1770 t 1.82ha a P 0.26ha 3370 4468 1.34ha 0.11ha

4765 82.6m 0.05ha 4365 3267 0.07ha 0.01ha 3964 0.62ha 4563 4659 0.20ha 80.9m 2863 0.01ha 4660 0.02ha 0.01ha 5159 4260 4960 0.05ha 0.05ha 0.07ha 2658 1 3058 2 0.07ha 0.28ha 4557 4057 0.12ha 3358 3756 0.29ha 0.20ha 0.06ha 4356 5255 3556 0.07ha 4755 0.15ha 0.07ha 0.20ha 5551 0.03ha 81.1m Church Cott Lodge El 85.8m s k c Sub Sta Spring to S 5651 5054 Church 0.01ha ck Horse 0.07ha AD ra K RO T 86.4m PAR Pond LB

NOTE: For identification purposes only. NOT TO SCALE 87.2m NOTE: For identification purposes only. NOT TO SCALE

Rectory Little 6 1 © Designed & produced by Bespoke Brochures | bespokebrochures.co Ravens PLAN IS NOT TO SCALE AND IS Weir Pond Church RowFOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY Weir ADDITIONALReproduced from the Ordnance Survey Map INFORMATION with permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. © Crown Copyright 2016. Carter Jonas LLP ES100021719

Directions Council Tax Important Information From London take the M11 to J8 and then the A120 towards Little Easton Manor - Band H Savills and their clients give notice that: 1. They are not authorised to make or give any representations or Braintree. After about 5 miles exit to Gt Dunmow onto the Annexe Cottage - Band B warranties in relation to the property either here or elsewhere, either B1256. At the third roundabout by Tesco take the first exit Semi-detached cottages - Band D on their own behalf or on behalf of their client or otherwise. They signed Woodlands Park continue through the first roundabout assume no responsibility for any statement that may be made in these Local Authority particulars. These particulars do not form part of any offer or contract for just over a mile then at the second roundabout take the first District Council and must not be relied upon as statements or representations of fact. exit. Shortly after take the first left hand turn to Little Easton 2. Any areas, measurements or distances are approximate. The text, and then take the next left fork onto Park Road. The property is London Road, , Essex, CB11 4ER images and plans are for guidance only and are not necessarily comprehensive. It should not be assumed that the property has all on the right just past the Church. Post code CM6 2JN. T: 01799 510510 necessary planning, building regulation or other consents and Savills has not tested any services, equipment or facilities. Purchasers must Viewings Tenure satisfy themselves by inspection or otherwise. By appointment with Savills: +44 (0)20 7075 2806 Freehold