Eastwell Manor

About the venue

Neo-Elizabethan manor near Ashford, once home to Queen Victoria's son Prince Alfred and now a Champneys spa hotel. Civil ceremonies take place in three oak-panelled rooms or an Italian gazebo, summer marquees hold 150, and private dining takes 6 to 80.

In the 1540s a bricklayer called Richard Plantagenet worked on the Eastwell estate, and claimed to be an illegitimate son of Richard III. The house he helped build was the first at Eastwell, put up for Sir Thomas Moyle between 1540 and 1550. The name comes from a spring east of the house, where Saxon shepherds once watered their flocks.

Much of the present building went up in the Neo-Elizabethan style between 1793 and 1799, for the 9th Earl of Winchilsea. In 1874 Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, moved in with his family. Queen Victoria visited often, and photographs show her skating on the lake. Princess Marie, later Queen of Romania, was born here in 1875, and one of the meeting rooms carries her name.

Fire badly damaged the house in the 1920s. It was rebuilt on the same site between 1926 and 1928, with enough care that it reads as much older. Champneys now owns it and has refitted the manor rooms, the Mews and the spa.

The spa has a 20-metre pool, hydropool and whirlpools, with a seasonal outdoor pool and an outdoor hydropool. There is a gym and fitness studio, and tennis, croquet and table tennis outside. Rooms are split between the Manor House, some with four-posters, and the colourful Mews a short walk away. Ashford International station is about five miles off.

Former home of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh

Neo-Elizabethan manor near Ashford

Three oak-panelled ceremony rooms

Italian gazebo in a walled garden

Summer marquee for up to 150

Private dining for 6 to 80

Champneys spa with indoor and outdoor pools

Five miles from Ashford International