ONE of England’s finest country houses is to become the home of a Californian rag trade tycoon and the European headquarters of his fashion label.

Easton Neston, a Grade I listed baroque masterpiece, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, and built in 1695, has been sold for almost £15m by Lord Hesketh. The Heskeths have lived on the 550-acre estate for almost 470 years.

The estate has been bought by Leon Max, a 52-year-old fashion designer, who emigrated to Israel from his native Russia as a teenager but switched planes for America en route.

Max and his wife Ame Austin, 30, will live in the magnificent house and use the stables and the Wren building, attached to the main house, as offices for their label Max Studio, which will employ around 30 staff. The Georgian stableblock could be used as a call centre for his mail-order business.

“At first we thought it was maybe a little too much of a challenge, but it is an exceptional house and a liveable home,” said Max.

“Leon always has one foot in the old world and the other in the modern world,” quipped Austin.

The price tag on the estate was a daunting £50m when it was first on the market in May last year. But when it failed to sell Hesketh divided the 3,300 acres of farms and farmland into separate lots, most of which have already been sold. The estate’s Grade II-listed dower house, home to Hesketh’s mother, has also been sold.

Last October the price of the more modest estate was cut to £22.5m and after months of negotiation Max sealed a bargain deal of close to £15m.

Max is regarded as an architectural connoisseur. His previous homes have included an arts and craft house designed by Greene & Greene, and a modernist home by Richard Neutra.

The antique splendour of Easton Neston will contrast with an 11,500 sq ft cliffside home at Malibu, California, currently awaiting planning permission and which Max hopes to build soon.

Hesketh, John Major’s chief whip in the House of Lords, said he decided to sell to avoid imposing a historic but expensive legacy on his children. He has estimated the house costs up to £1.5m a year to maintain in a bad year and as much as £500,00 in a good year.

The new owners’ plan to host a lavish party to celebrate the acquisition. Their friends include Sir Elton John and Lily Safra, widow of the billionaire banker Edmund Safra, and Tory MP Nocholas Soames.

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