Eastwell, Kent

Description
Eastwell, a parish in Kent, 3 miles W by N of Wye station on the S.E.R., and 3 N by E of Ashford; post, money order, and telegraph office, Ashford. Acreage, 896 ; population of the civil parish, 125 ; of the ecclesiastical, 696. The manor belonged anciently to a family of its own name, but passed to successively the families of Hales, Moyle, Finch, Heneage, Hat-ton, and Gerard. Eastwell Park, the seat of the Gerard family, formerly a residence of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, has a modern mansion by Bononi, on the site of one built by Sir Thomas Moyle in the time of Henry VIII., extends beyond the parish so far as to include about 2500 acres, and both presents fine scenery within itself, and commands very brilliant exterior views. Richard, the last of the Plantagenets, a natural son of Richard III., took refuge in Eastwell after the battle of Bosworth; worked here as a mason till identified and relieved by Sir Thomas Moyle, and then built a small house in which he lived and died, and which was demolished towards the end of the 17th century. A modern building marks the site of the house, and a spring near this is called PIantagenet's Well. The living is a rectory, with Broughton Aluph annexed, in the diocese of Canterbury; joint value, £463 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Winchelsea. The church is ancient but good, consists of nave, aisle, and two chancels, with square embattled tower, and contains a massive table monument to Sir Moyle Finch and his wife the Countess of Winchelsea, and also a worn ancient tomb, without inscription, supposed by some to be the tomb of Richard PIantagenet, but appearing to others to be of earlier date. In the register there is an -entry of the death of Richard PIantagenet, and also the Solemn League and Covenant, the Protestation, the Vow and Covenant 1642-43, with the original signatures of some parishioners.