More information : [SU 8455 6710] Easthampstead Park [T.I.]. (1)
Easthampstead Park was a Royal hunting preserve with lodge from as early as 1320. It was disparked in 1629 by Charles I and granted to William Turnbull. (2)
Easthampstead Park, with moated lodge, is shown on Norden's Map. Walter's map shows the park centred at SU 849668 and the lodge at SU 84856695.
There is now no trace of a park pale or a moat. The site of the latter is occupied by modern buildings. (3)
A Royal House was in existence at Easthampstead by 1516. Norden's survey map of Easthampstead, made in 1607, shows a substantial house on a square site surrounded by a moat. James I visited the house from 1618 to his death and Charles I granted Easthampstead to William Trambull in 1628. (4)
This was a royal park in Windsor Forest, conveniently close to Windsor Castle and first mentioned in 1365 as a park surrounded by palings. There was a royal residence or hunting lodge and the park became a favorite royal hunting ground. It is shown by both Saxton (1574) and by Norden (1607) in their maps of the area. In Norden's time it contained a mansion and inclosed 265 acres of alnd described as 'very mean, well timbered and stoked with 200-300 fallow deer'. James I enlarged the park but it had begun to decline by 1629 when his son granted out the rights of chase of the Keeper, William Trumbull.
According to a petition of 1660 all the deer had been destroyed in the Civil War and it was impossible to replace them. Nevertheless Easthampstead survived as an ornamental park. (5)
The lodge within the park was more than a mere hunting lodge. Easthampstead manor was acquired by Edward II from John of Droxford, Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1320. In 1343, the house was converted. There were two buildings arranged about a courtyard. The building on the East was converted from two rooms up and down into eight chambers, and the western bulding, a single room up and down, was converted to five chambers. The hall, chapel and kitchen were reroofed at the same time. In 1392 there were references to a great hall, great chapel, and a spicery. (6) |