My father, Brian Creasey, who has died aged 81, set up and ran one of Britain’s most successful vehicle rental companies and then, with some of the money from the venture, devoted much of his later life to restoring an old mansion in Essex, opening the gardens to the public.
Brian started Countryside Hire in Hertfordshire in the mid-1960s with a secondhand Commer van, building up a fleet of more than 600 vehicles over 25 years. Innovative in putting customer service and employees first – in a sector that generally had a poor reputation for both – he not only prospered, but became a popular figure in the vehicle rental industry. This was partly due to his annual “Ides of March lunch”, which sought to bring his competitors together to talk about industry matters rather than stab each other in the back.
Once the business was booming, Brian and his young family moved, in 1971, to Easton Lodge, near Great Dunmow in Essex – formerly the seat of the Countess of Warwick. Part of one wing of the house was all that remained after fires and demolition, and over 30 years Brian brought the house up to scratch. But it was in the grounds of the building that he had the biggest impact. Using reclaimed materials and carrying out most of the manual labour himself, he almost singlehandedly restored the gardens that had lain undisturbed and forgotten for three decades.
In the 1990s he acquired a further 4.5 acres of the original gardens and permission to restore another 23 acres adjoining the house. With the help of volunteers and funds raised by opening the gardens to the public, the remaining grounds were restored to a state that retained their “forgotten” feel but made them more orderly and attractive.
Brian was born to Mary (nee Leslie) and Gaylor in Knebworth, Hertfordshire, and from Alleyne’s grammar school in Stevenage went to Bishop’s Stortford college, where he picked up his love of gardening from joining the college’s alpine rock garden society. He was a good long-distance runner who also played rugby for Welwyn Garden City.Following national service in the Royal Artillery at Oswestry, and then returned to Knebworth to work in the family’s motor dealership business, HG Creasey & Sons. When business conditions got tough and the firm was in effect dissolved, Brian set out on his own with Countryside Hire.
In 1990 he sold the business to the French company VIA for £1.76m, and after a short handover period stopped working to concentrate on Easton Lodge, which was his true love. He retired from running the gardens in 2008, later moving to Somerset as his health declined. Although Easton Lodge is now in new ownership, a charitable trust oversees the gardens, parts of which are still open to the public.
Brian is survived by his wife, Diana (nee Ramsey), whom he married in 1958, by four children, Simon, Anne-Louise, me and Philip, and by nine grandchildren.
