Eastwell Park

Eastwell Park was an English stately home in the civil parish of Eastwell, adjoining Ashford in Kent, that for a time served as a royal residence.

The house was built for George Finch Hatton (1793-1799). A Victorian Tudor-style wing was later added; the house had seven bays and wings of three bays each.

Eastwell Park was rented by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh from 1874 to 1893. The Duke was the second son of Queen Victoria; the Duchess was originally a Grand Duchess of Russia. Their daughter Marie (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." [Marie, Queen of Rumania, "The Story of My Life, Part 2", "The Saturday Evening Post", December 23, 1933. Copy available [http://www.tkinter.smig.net/QueenMarie/SatEvePost/1933-12-23/index.htm here] .]

The family left the house upon the Duke's inheritance of the dukedom of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1893.

Eastwell Park was demolished in 1926. Remaining features of the estate include its gatehouse, Eastwell Towers, which was built in 1848, and a ruined church dating to the 14th century. [ [http://www.boughtonandeastwell.co.uk Boughton Aluph and Eastwell Parish Website] ]

Notable inhabitants

* Richard Plantagenet (Richard of Eastwell)
* Marie of Edinburgh later Queen of Romania
* Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
* Sir Thomas Moyle
* Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham

References