Eastwell Park
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
stately home
Stately home
A stately home is a "great country house". It is thus a palatial great house or in some cases an updated castle, located in the British Isles, mostly built between the mid-16th century and the early part of the 20th century, as well as converted abbeys and other church property...
in the civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
of Eastwell, adjoining Ashford
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, that for a time served as a royal residence. The house was demolished in the 1920s and replaced with a large house called Eastwell Manor, which is now a country house hotel.
The original house was built for Sir Thomas Moyle
Thomas Moyle
Sir Thomas Moyle was a commissioner for Henry VIII in the dissolution of the monasteries, and speaker of the House of Commons in the Parliament of England from 1542 to 1544.-Life:...
between 1540 and 1550 by Richard Plantagenet (Richard of Eastwell)
Richard Plantagenet (Richard of Eastwell)
Richard Plantagenet or Richard of Eastwell was a reclusive bricklayer who claimed to be a son of Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England.-Life:...
, who claimed to be a son of Richard III of England
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
.
The present house was built between 1793-1799 for George Finch Hatton, 9th Earl of Winchilsea
George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea
George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea KG PC FRS was an important figure in the history of cricket. His main contributions to the game were patronage and organisation but Winchilsea, an amateur, was also a very keen player....
. A Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
Tudor-style wing was later added; the house had seven bays and wings of three bays each.
In the mid-1860s one of Finch Hatton's successors, George James Finch-Hatton, 11th Earl of Winchilsea
George Finch-Hatton, 11th Earl of Winchilsea
George James Finch-Hatton, 11th Earl of Winchilsea and 6th Earl of Nottingham , styled Viscount Maidstone between 1826 and 1857, was a British peer and Tory politician.-Background:...
was experiencing financial difficulties of a very serious kind. On 4 December 1868 trustees appointed under the Winchilsea Estate Act (1865) entered into a contract to let Eastwell Park, together with its furnishings and effects, to the Duke of Abercorn
James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn
James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn KG PC , styled Viscount Hamilton from 1814 to 1818 and the Marquess of Abercorn from 1818 to 1868, was a British Conservative politician and statesman who twice served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.In 1860, The Times noted that Hamilton was one of only three to...
for a period of five years. Lord Winchilsea had been obliged to vacate the property some time prior to December 1868, and he was formally adjudged bankrupt on 5 October 1870.
Eastwell Park was next rented by the Duke
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and reigned from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...
and Duchess of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh
The Duke of Edinburgh is a British royal title, named after the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, which has been conferred upon members of the British royal family only four times times since its creation in 1726...
from 1874 to 1893. The Duke was the second son of Queen Victoria; the Duchess was originally a Grand Duchess of Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Their daughter Princess Marie
Marie of Edinburgh
Marie of Romania was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.-Early life:...
(who later became queen of Romania) was born at the house in 1875. In her memoirs, Queen Marie writes of "beautiful Eastwell with its great gray house, its magnificent park, with its herds of deer and picturesque Highland cattle, its lake, its woods, its garden with the old cedar tree which was our fairy mansion."
The family left the house upon the Duke's inheritance of the dukedom of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha served as the collective name of two duchies, Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha, in Germany. They were located in what today are the states of Bavaria and Thuringia, respectively, and the two were in personal union between 1826 and 1918...
in 1893.
Eastwell Park was demolished in 1926. A large new house in the neo-Elizabethan style called Eastwell Manor was built on the site, and is now a country house hotel. The original main gatehouse, now known as Eastwell Towers, which was built in 1848, stands a mile south-south west of the manor. Other survivals include a ruined church dating to the 14th century. A nine hole golf course has been laid out in the grounds.
Notable inhabitants
- Richard Plantagenet (Richard of Eastwell)Richard Plantagenet (Richard of Eastwell)Richard Plantagenet or Richard of Eastwell was a reclusive bricklayer who claimed to be a son of Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England.-Life:...
- Marie of EdinburghMarie of EdinburghMarie of Romania was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.-Early life:...
later Queen of Romania - Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- Sir Thomas MoyleThomas MoyleSir Thomas Moyle was a commissioner for Henry VIII in the dissolution of the monasteries, and speaker of the House of Commons in the Parliament of England from 1542 to 1544.-Life:...
- Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham