SHORT HISTORY OF EASTWOOD PARK

 

Eastwood Park is associated with the Jenkinson family whose pedigree starts with Anthony Jenkinson of Bristol, the companion of Sebastian Cabot (1474 to 1557). The descendants of Anthony Jenkinson have all had distinguished careers and the early members of the family were great travellers and seafaring men.

 

The motto of the Jenkinson family is PAREO NON SERVIO ("I obey, I do not serve"). The Arms and Motto can be seen above the stained glass window on the main staircase.

 

The former home of the Jenkinson family was the Manor House of Hawkesbury, the property having been acquired by Sir Robert Jenkinson, BT in the early part of the 17th century, but the house was later abandoned and eventually pulled down. The Manor of Hawkesbury, which lies to the east of Wickwar, originally belonged to the Great Benedictine Abbey of Pershore.

 

The second Baronet married Sarah Tomlins, a descendant of the Venerable Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon of Canterbury, the younger brother of Archbishop Cranmer.

 

Sir Charles Jenkinson, Seventh Baronet, First Baron of Hawkesbury and First Earl of Liverpool bought the Eastwood Estate in the 18th Century. His son, the Second Earl, was Prime Minister of England from 1812 to 1827. The peerage became extinct on the death of the Third Earl in 1851, when the baronetcy developed upon his cousin Sir Charles Jenkinson.

 

In 1865 Sir George Samuel Jenkinson of Eastwood Park, Falfield, eldest surviving son of the Right Rev. John Banks Jenkinson, Bishop of St. David's, succeeded to the family estates of Hawkesbury and Falfield and became Eleventh Baronet. He at once devoted himself to the improvement of the property and subscribed generously to the building if the Church of St George, Vicarage and School at Falfield. He also built the house at Eastwood, having first pulled down a portion of the house there, which the Second Earl of Liverpool had started but never completed. He died in 1892 is buried in the vault at the west end of Falfield Church Yard.

 

In 1915 Sir Anthony Banks Jenkinson, Thirteenth Baronet succeeded to the title and the trustees sold the Eastwood Estate to a Mr Tucker, a butcher from Bath.

 

In 1918 Eastwood Park was purchased by Mr Watts, a Colliery and Shipping owner who sold the estate to a Syndicate Company in 1934. The property was then split up and sold in lots, and in 1935 the Home Office purchased the property. In 1936 "The Civilian Anti Gas School" was opened and a year later the Annexe was built. During the 1939/45 war the name of the school was changed to "The Ministry of Home Security Air Raid Precautions School". In 1945 the Home Office loaned the School to the South Western Police District and it became the No.7. District Police Training Centre.

 

In 1949 it was handed back to the Home office and Civil Defence Courses were resumed. Such courses continued until 1968 when Civil Defence was put on a care and maintenance basis.

In 1969 the property was acquired by the Department of Health and Social Security to provide a National Residential Course Centre for all Engineering staff in the National Health Service and course commenced on the 16th February 1970.

 

Today the house is operated as a Training and Conference Centre.
For more information go to www.eastwoodpark.co.uk