Eastwell Park

Eastwell Park is a large area of parkland and a country estate in the civil parish of Eastwell, adjoining Ashford, Kent, in England. Over time successive buildings have served as homes to Sir Thomas Moyle, the Earls of Winchilsea and Nottingham, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and others.

The estate is now mainly a farming concern, raising crops and sheep. Part of the estate is landscaped to include a large shallow lake which can be fished and the distinctive Eastwell Towers. The largest building on the site today is Eastwell Manor, a stately home which is now operated as a country house hotel. The Manor and Towers are Grade II listed.

The original country house at Eastwell was built for Sir Thomas Moyle between 1540 and 1550. One of the men employed on the estate was the bricklayer Richard Plantagenet, who claimed to be an illegitimate son of Richard III.

Much of Eastwell Manor, the building that now serves as a hotel, was built in the neo-Elizabethan style between 1793–1799 for George Finch-Hatton, 9th Earl of Winchilsea.

A Victorian Tudor-style wing was later added; the house had seven bays and wings of three bays each.

In the mid-1860s, the 11th Earl of Winchilsea experienced serious financial difficulties, which eventually forced him to leave the property. 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 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.

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