Braxted Park, formerly called Braxted Lodge, is a country house in the Queen Anne style set in a landscaped 2,000 acre park near the village of

Great Braxted Great Braxted is a village between Great Totham and Tiptree in Essex, England. The population as of the 2011 census was 130. The local manor house is known as Braxted Park. The medieval All Saints' church is contained within its 2,000-acre estat ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086,

Eudo Dapifer Eudo Dapifer (sometimes Eudo fitzHerbertBarlow ''William Rufus'' p. 474 and Eudo de Rie); (died 1120), was a Norman aristocrat who served as a steward (server, Latin 'dapifer') under William the Conqueror, William II Rufus, and Henry I. Life Eud ...

is shown as owner of the manor. All Saints' Church, originally built in about 1115 and restored in the 18th century, also lies within the park grounds. The property, recorded as a 'deer park' in 1342, was held by a series of Essex families including those by the names of Anesty, Montchensy, Valence, Hastings, Grey, Montgomery, Ayloff and Maynard. The lands were purchased by Thomas Darcy in 1650 from the estate of the then

Countess of Pembroke {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 Countess of Pembroke is a title that has been borne by several women throughout history, including: * Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke (1172–1220), wife of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and Count ...

. Braxted Lodge was built on the property in 1680 by Darcy's son. During his ownership, the property was enlarged and landscaped, with several large man-made ponds being added, including one that is now visible from the main house and is referred to as 'the lake'. In 1745, the estate was purchased from the Darcy family by

Peter Du Cane, Sr. Peter Du Cane (22 April 1713 – 28 March 1803), a descendant of Jean Du Quesne, the elder and son of Richard Du Cane, M.P., was a leading 18th century British merchant and businessman . Du Cane amassed great wealth in land and fund holdings, as ...

of nearby

Coggeshall Coggeshall ( or ) is a small town in Essex, England, between Colchester and Braintree on the Roman road Stane Street and the River Blackwater. It has almost 300 listed buildings and a market whose charter was granted in 1256 by Henry III. ...

, a wealthy cloth merchant, trader and businessman descended from noble

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

ancestors by the name of 'Du Quesne'. Having moved the family to Essex, where he had become High Sheriff and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

, Du Cane ultimately settled the family at Braxted Park in 1751. Du Cane, a director of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

and the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

, reconstructed and enlarged the house around 1760, assisted by

Isaac Ware Isaac Ware (1704—1766) was an English architect and translator of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. Early life Ware was born to a life of poverty, living as a street urchin and working as a chimney sweep, until he was adopted by ...

Thomas James Thomas James (c. 1573 – August 1629) was an English librarian and Anglican clergyman, the first librarian of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Life He was born about 1573 at Newport, Isle of Wight. In 1586 he was admitted a scholar of Winchest ...

and

Robert Taylor (architect) Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788) was an English architect and sculptor who worked in London and the south of England. Early life Born at Woodford, Essex, Taylor followed in his father's footsteps and started working as a stonemason and sculptor, ...

. Du Cane thoroughly landscaped and upgraded the property, more than doubling its size. The property passed to Peter Du Cane (II), then 62, when his father died at the age of 90 in 1803. He accomplished even more improvements and alterations to the building and grounds, bringing the main house and gardens largely to their present state. Peter Du Cane (III) inherited the property in 1823 and continued to add to the holdings, including the restoration of the church (including the building of the Du Cane Family crypt) and the addition of several other buildings. In 1841,

Charles Du Cane Sir Charles Du Cane (5 December 1825 – 25 February 1889) was a British Conservative Party politician and colonial administrator who was a Member of Parliament between 1852 and 1854 and Governor of Tasmania from 1868 to 1874. Du Cane was born ...

acceded to the property on the death of his cousin Peter, who had by then already formally changed its name to 'Braxted Park'.

for

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the River Blackwater, Essex, Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea ...

from 1852 to 1854 and for Essex North from 1857 to 1868, Du Cane served as civil

Lord of the Admiralty This is a list of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty (incomplete before the Restoration, 1660). The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty were the members of The Board of Admiralty, which exercised the office of Lord High Admiral when it was n ...

for two years. Sir Charles was appointed

Governor of Tasmania The governor of Tasmania is the representative in the Australian state of Tasmania of the Monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. The incumbent governor is Barbara Baker, who was appointed in June 2021. The official residence of the ...

from 1868 to 1874 and died on the estate in 1889. Braxted Park was acquired by

Sir William Boulton, 1st Baronet Sir William Whytehead Boulton, 1st Baronet DL (10 January 1873 – 9 January 1949) was a British soldier and Conservative Party politician. Background Boulton was the son of William Whytehead Boulton and his wife Mary Hudleston Gibson, daughte ...

, from the Du Cane family in 1919. The Boulton Baronetcy of Braxted Park was created in 1944. The Boulton family sold the estate to The

Plessey The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas compani ...

Company in 1947. Sir

Allen George Clark Sir Allen George Clark (August 24, 1898 – June 30, 1962) was an American-born British industrialist who helped to build the Plessey company into one of Europe's largest manufacturers of telecommunications equipment, military electronics and ai ...

, chairman of the company, and his descendants have been its occupants to the present day. At present there is a disused Victorian school on the Estate. This was built for the use of the children of the Parish.

References

External links

Braxted Park Cookery School

Braxted Park Wedding Venue
{{coord, 51.8060, 0.6891, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Essex Queen Anne architecture in the United Kingdom Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Essex