About Braxted Park Estate

A Family Home

Braxted Park was first recorded as a Deer Park in 1342 when it belonged to the Countess of Pembroke. Some three centuries later, Thomas Darcy II, abandoned the old house situated close to Braxted church, and built Braxted Lodge on the site of the present house in 1680. Peter Du Cane, a cloth merchant and entrepreneur subsequently lived at Braxted Lodge until 1803 when his son inherited the park carrying out extensive alterations to both the house and grounds. In 1841 the estate was passed on to a cousin, Charles Du Cane, who maintained it until, following his his death in 1889, the estate went into a gradual decline.

Braxted Park was eventually sold by the Du Cane family to William Boulton in 1919, who then sold it to The Plessey Company in 1947. The house was occupied by Sir Allen Clark, chairman of the company and subsequently by his son, Michael Clark. In 1955, 45 acres in the north-west of the old park was developed as a private golf course and this continues to flourish today. The estate is now owned and managed by Sir Allen Clark's grandson, Duncan Clark who, along with his wife Nicky, devote all their energies full-time to making Braxted a thriving and self-sufficient diversified rural business.

From Our Family to Yours

The Clark family have lived at Braxted Park since 1946. Duncan Clark, the Grandson of the Sir Allen Clark, was brought up here as a boy, enjoying many fun-filled days on the estate. In 1983, Duncan married Nicky and they then welcomed five children into the world; Ailsa, Freddy, Archie, Iona and Arlo. They are blessed with four grandchildren and three lovely dogs; Staffa, Mousa and Lupin.

Duncan and Nicky's biggest love is their family, and often delight in having all their loved ones together for a picnic on the back lawn or a dinner in the house. Archie, their third born, is an accomplished chef and therefore food is a large part of their lives. They have created so many happy memories here and hope you can do the same!

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A Versatile Venue

Being a country manor house where old meets new, we can offer a multitude of event spaces providing you with countless choices in style and feel. Celebrate love in the Orangery, network in the ballroom or party in the pavilion; whatever event you are planning, we can set the scene. If you are looking to hold a large charity ball, we can cater for as many as 350 guests but equally, if you are hoping to arrange a private dinner for a family birthday, we would love to help you make those memories. With 500 acres of additional parkland, we welcome festivals and fayres, team building and sporting events. We are even the ideal location for photo shoots and filming.

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Braxted Park Kitchen

Braxted Park Kitchen lies at the very heart of our approach to our wonderful weddings. After all, cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all. The Braxted Park Kitchen is headed up by Adam O'Sullivan who joined Braxted Park as Executive Head Chef and brings with him a wealth of experience.

Adam was drawn to Braxted Park because of its sustainability and its commitment to sourcing the finest, local ingredients. He believes in making friends with your local butcher, greengrocer, baker - buy fresh and buy local as much as you can. The meat your local butcher can supply you will inevitably be better than anything you can get from the supermarket. Local farm shops have a fantastic array of locally grown seasonal produce, and there is nothing better smelling than standing in a bakery waiting for a still warm unsliced loaf.

Braxted Park seeks to use it’s own reared meat, game and organic vegetables in a long-term field & farm to fork policy and so, with such aligning values, Adam was made for Braxted Park, with him at the helm, we know that your wedding day will be remembered with every bite. With Adam's passion for distinct and subtle flavours he has designed an extensive menu with a creative twist to classic dishes and as a result our couples have a remarkable choice when considering the menu for their special day.

Exclusive and Personal

We are a family business and as such, we want the love we feel for our home to be shared with others, and we couldn’t do that without a key team of staff who share the same dedication and passion that we do*. They provide a bespoke approach to client management, which we believe is unrivalled, and focus on offering individualised event planning. Being an exclusive use venue, we can make your occasion as unique as you like and our team are happy to help.

Well Connected

Being situated in 500 acres of breath taking parkland, tucked away down a winding country lane adorned with mature trees and hedgerows, you would be forgiven for thinking access to Braxted Park would be a long, complicated journey but we are situated just 10 minutes from the A12, providing direct connections to Colchester, Witham, Chelmsford and the wider Essex/London area.

Braxted Park welcomes those from all parts of the United Kingdom, thanks to being only 4 miles from a main-line train station, offering links with Norwich, Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds. With a mere 23 miles between us and Stansted airport, you can fly your international guests in, knowing it is only a short 30-minute transfer to our comfortable and welcoming establishment.

A history of Braxted Park

A History of Braxted Park

Country Food Trust Headquarters

The Country Food Trust is a charity which raise funds to provide meals to feed people in need and we are proud to offer Braxted Park as it's headquarters.

The meals are game based, high in protein, low in fat and are supplied in either single, long life, ready-to-use pouches that do not need to be refrigerated or in catering packs to those charities who feed a large number of people at any one time. They buy large quantities of frozen meat directly from reputable game dealers and donate it to those charities who have the relevant storage and cooking facilities. The charity is funded by individuals, companies, shoots, trusts and other charitable organisations.

A passionate countryman, Duncan joined as the Trustee in charge of their Ambassadorial program and is piloting the Country Food Trust Initiative in East Anglia which aims to triangulate the relationship between a region’s shoots, game processors and charities. If you would like to support this worthwhile charity please donate here.

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What our clients say…

We wanted a training day that gave our staff a unique hands-on team building activity, but needed to combine this with a short training session. Braxted Park, with its beautiful parkland, proved to be the perfect venue for this.
Angela Wagstaff, owner of Allwag Promotions

We were looking for somewhere to hold our corporate fun day and the back lawn at Braxted Park was exactly what we had wanted. The planning process was slick and staff were so attentive on the day. Its important that we put on these days and the team made it effortless to bring it all together.
Yellow Events Agency

Our engineers are on the road most of the time and so having the opportunity to bring them all together, with their loved ones, is a special event and we needed a special place. Alex helped us plan the most phenomenal festival experience in the height of summer and we certainly wowed our guests!
Cloudfm