Mote Park is a multi-use public park in Maidstone, Kent. Previously a country estate it was converted to landscaped park land at the end of the 18th century before becoming a municipal park. It includes the former stately home Mote House together with a miniature railway and a boating lake. A ground of the same name within the park has also been used as a first-class cricket ground by Kent County Cricket Club. The house is set in a park maintained by Maidstone Borough Council with support from the Mote Park Fellowship, a group of volunteers. History The park's name is derived from 'moot' or 'mote' in Old English meaning "a place of assembly". Its proximity to nearby Penenden Heath (the site of shire moots during the Middle Ages) indicates that it may once have formed part of an administrative region in central Kent. In the 13th century, the "mote" lands were incorporated into the manor of local landowners and a manor house in the area of the present-day park is described as being castellated (or fortified) with emparked grounds. This is believed to indicate the area was used as one of the earliest deer parks in Kent. The park is incorporated into royal history as a possession of King Edward IV's consort, Elizabeth Woodville (daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers) and was later raided by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick angered by the King's marriage. The Woodville family continued to lay claim to the land despite various interventions during the reign of Richard III and Henry VII. On 17 July 1531, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn visited it, before their marriage. Passing to Thomas Wyatt the younger, the estate again returned to the Crown under Queen Elizabeth I before finally passing, in 1690 to the Marsham family, who would later become the Lords Romney. Under the ownership of the Marsham family, the estate was considerably improved. The grounds were laid out in the so-called Anglo-Dutch style illustrated in an engraving by Johannes Kip in 1750. Frances Marsham, Lady Romney, was instrumental in redesigning the grounds prior to her death in 1795. On Thursday, August the 1st, 1799, King George III and Prime Minister William Pitt visited the property to inspect around 3,000 assembled troops of the Kent Volunteers, a local militia trained to defend the county from a possible invasion by Napoleon I of France. The event