LITTLE EASTON MANOR Little Easton, Dunmow, Essex 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), Chelmsford 15 miles, London 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 River Chelmer 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, Felsted 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, Halstead, 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 England, 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.