Easton Neston house

Easton Neston is a large grade I listed country house in the parish of Easton Neston near Towcester in Northamptonshire, England. It was built by William Fermor, 1st Baron Leominster , in the Baroque style to the design of the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. Easton Neston is thought to be the only mansion which was solely the work of Hawksmoor. From about 1700, after the completion of Easton Neston, Hawksmoor worked with Sir John Vanbrugh on many buildings, including Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace, and often provided technical knowledge to the less qualified Vanbrugh. Hawksmoor's work was always more classically severe than Vanbrugh's. However, Easton Neston predates this partnership by some six years.
Hawksmoor was commissioned to re-build the old manor house at Easton Neston by Sir William Fermor, later created Baron Leominster, who had inherited the estate from his father Sir William Fermor, 1st Baronet , who had himself inherited it in 1640 and had been created a baronet the following year by King Charles I. Hawksmoor had been recommended to Fermor by his cousin by marriage Sir Christopher Wren, who in about 1680 had advised on the building of a new mansion on the site. No details of what Wren envisaged survive, and work seems to have ceased following completion of the two service blocks, of which only one survives. Following Fermor's marriage in 1692 to the wealthy heiress Catherine Poulett, he decided to resurrect the idea of a new mansion, and subsequently Wren's pupil Hawksmoor received the commission in about 1694.

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