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. Eastwell Manor 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. The first house was replaced by one built in the neo-Elizabethan style between 1793 and 1799 for George Finch-Hatton to designs by Adam's former draughtsman, Joseph Bonomi (1739-1808). 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 sometime prior to December 1868, and he was formally adjudged bankrupt on 5 October 1870. Eastwell was next occupied by Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria. He lived here with his family until 1893, when he inherited the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Germany. During that time, Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor and there are photographs of her skating on the lake. Prince Alfred's older brother, the future Edward VII, was also a visitor. In 1875, Prince Alfred's daughter Princess Marie - who later became queen of Romania - was born at the house. In her memoirs, she recalls "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