The main house at Eastwell Park was built in Neo-Elizabethan style between 1793 and 1799 for George Finch-Hatton, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, and remodelled in 1843 by William Burn. In the mid-1860s the 11th Earl suffered financial difficulties forcing him to leave and the estate was let to the Duke of Abercorn for 5 years. (Winchilsea was declared bankrupt in 1870). The house was then tenanted by Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria. Eastwell Park was bought by the 2nd Lord Gerard in 1894 and it passed to his son in 1902. Frederic John Gerard had gained the rank of Captain in the Lancashire Hussars Imperial Yeomanry and achieved a similar rank with the Royal Horse Guards. He also held the office of Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Lancashire.
In 1920 Eastwell Park was put up for sale and the eventual buyer was Mr Osborn Dan who never lived here but chose to remain in his house at Wateringbury. He sold the estate in 1924 and it was reported that the new owner intended to reduce the size of the mansion. This was Sir John de Fonblanqua Pennefather (1856-1933), a British cotton merchant and Conservative politician, who’d just been created a Baronet, of Golden in the County of Tipperary. Some experts suggest he was more interested in architecture rather than the estate. He demolished the existing mansion and in 1926, using much of the old materials, rebuilt the house as it now stands, but significantly reducing its size. He was overtaken by blindness and never lived in the new house. In 1930, Madeline Cecilia Carlyle Brodrick, 2nd wife of the 1st Earl of Midleton, later Countess Midleton, bought the estate but lived in London. Her son, Captain George Brodrick, managed the estate on modern and efficient lines. The 1920s house survives as Eastwell Manor, a Champneys Spa Hotel. All that remains of the old house is Eastwell Towers, built in 1848, the original gatehouse.
HOUSE AND HERITAGE 