Easthampstead Park

In the Middle Ages, Easthampstead was a part of Windsor Forest, and was reserved for royal hunting. King Edward III had a hunting lodge at Easthampstead, an easy ride from Windsor, which he had built in 1350.

Henry VII and his son Arthur, Prince of Wales arranged the latter's marriage to Catherine of Aragon at the lodge, and later rode out from here for their first meeting with the princess on Finchampstead Ridges. After the death of his brother in 1502, Henry VIII married Catherine as his first wife, and years later, she spent a miserable few years at Easthampstead Park, awaiting news of her husband's attempt to divorce her when his attentions turned to Anne Boleyn.

Sir John Mason (1503-1566) became Keeper of Easthampstead Park in 1548 and King James I enlarged and improved the estate, which was well stocked with deer.

Charles I gave the Park to William Trumbull on 28 March 1629, in recognition of his service as ambassador to the Archduke Albert of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands, and later as Clerk of the Privy Council, on the condition that he maintain a herd of 200 deer for the King's recreation in the deer park. The royal hunting lodge was incorporated into a newly built mansion. William Trumbull died in September 1635 and is buried in Easthampstead parish church.

William Trumbull (2nd) lived from 1594 to 1668. In 1636, Charles I issued a charter to give Easthampstead Park to the Trumbulls permanently, confirming the gift of 1628. The charter had long been lost, but was recently discovered in London.[1] It was subsequently purchased by Berkshire Record Office with support from the MLA/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund.

Sir William Trumbull (3rd) (1639–1716) was the most distinguished of the family, active in the Royal service overseas. He was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and a barrister. Sir William Trumbull befriended Alexander Pope the poet, who lived in Binfield and was a frequent visitor to Easthampstead Park.

Another poet, Elijah Fenton, was tutor to William Trumbull (4th) (1708–1760). His only child, Mary Trumbull, married Martin Sandys in 1760. Their only child, Mary Sandys (1764–1836), married Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire (1753–1801) in 1786 and was later created Baroness Sandys.

The Trumbull inheritance included 380 volumes of manuscripts collected by Sir William Trumbull (3rd). The archive, which features letters by Stuart kings, Philip II of Spain, Marie de Medici, Bacon, Donne, Dryden, Fenton, Pope and Weckherlin, had been on loan to Berkshire county record office. In the summer of 1989, the collection was sent to Sotheby's in London, with an estimate of £2.5m. But on the eve of the November sale, a deal was done with the Inland Revenue, the auction was cancelled and the British Library took the papers.

Arthur Hill succeeded as 2nd Marquess of Downshire on the death of his father Wills Hill in 1793, who started the building of Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland, completed in 1797.

He had five sons:

• Arthur Blundell Sandys Trumbull Hill, 3rd Marquess of Downshire (1788–1845)
• Arthur Moyses William Hill, 2nd Baron Sandys (1793–1860)
• Arthur Marcus Cecil Sandys, 3rd Baron Sandys (1798–1863)
• Arthur Augustus Edwin Sandys (1800–1831)
• Major Lord George Augusta Sandys (1801–1879)

In a letter in May 1857, to a Mrs Russell of Thornhill, Jane Carlyle (wife of Thomas Carlyle), whose friend Lady Ashburton had recently died and who was suffering from influenza, wrote:

"In the meantime I am going for a week to Easthampstead Park (the Marquis of Downshire's), almost immediately. But these great grand Country Houses are not the places Nature prompts me to take my sick nerves and bad spirits to! Especially when I am not going as a sort of animated, still wholly irresponsible carpet-bag, with Mr. Carlyle's name on it, but on my own basis! ..."[2]

Easthampstead house was only one of the properties of the Marquess of Downshire, who owned large estates of 115,000 acres (465 km²) in Northern Ireland. In 1860, the fourth Marquess, confusingly called Arthur Wills Blundell Sandys Trumbull Windsor Hill (1812–1868) demolished the old mansion, leaving only a stable block, and built the present house which was completed in 1864. At about the same time as the present mansion was erected, the Marchioness provided for the rebuilding of St Michael's parish church, Easthampstead where there are memorials to the Trumbull and Downshire families and to the poet, Elijah Fenton.

In 1885, King Edward VII visited Easthampstead Park while Prince of Wales. One of his handwritten letters, dated from the Park 18 June 1885, has been offered for sale by Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, Texas .

The Downshires were very active in the affairs of Ireland, but Arthur Hill, 6th Marquess of Downshire (1871–1918) lived principally at Easthampstead Park until his death. These were the golden days of Easthampstead Park, especially during Royal Ascot week each year. The sixth Marquess and his son employed a large staff of gardeners and others, and took great personal interest in the estate, even assisting with the upkeep of the roads with their own steam roller. The Park also contained a miniature steam railway, since removed to a south coast resort. The old engine shed still survives near the original ha-ha at the edge of the current gardens however. The gardens are well stocked with a large number of mature trees of diverse and often exotic species.

During the Second World War, part of the Mansion was used by St Paul's School, which was evacuated from London. Until 1945, masters and boys lived in Crowthorne, lessons took place in Easthampstead Park, while Wellington College lent playing fields and laboratories. The Army made use of the Park and built many Nissen huts. The Army's presence attracted German aircraft in 1941 which dropped a stick of bombs down the main drive, the last one hitting the Lodge at the main gate.