2017
TQ2897 : Path to the lake in Trent Park
taken 6 years ago, near to Cockfosters, Enfield, England
Path to the lake in Trent Park
Trent Country Park is a relic of the Royal Hunting Forest of Enfield Chase which was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.
Trent Country Park has survived almost unchanged from the days when it served as a royal hunting ground. Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James I were among those who hunted here.
In 1777 George III gave 200 acres to his favourite physician, Dr Richard Jebb as a reward for saving the life of the King’s younger brother, the then Duke of Gloucester. This occurred in the Italian Alps at Trento, hence the name of the park. Dr Jebb had a small villa built in a classical style by the architect William Chambers (who also created Somerset House). The house was bought in 1852 by the Bevan Family.
In 1912, the Estate, now named Trent Park, was inherited by Sir Philip Sassoon who lived from 1888 to 1939. In 1926 he bought the freehold of the Estate from the Crown. He developed Trent Park as a place for grand entertainment, rebuilding parts of the house, laying out new formal gardens, creating a golf course, and a Japanese water garden.
The house has seen many uses including as an interrogation centre for enemy airmen in the Second World War. It is now part of the campus of Middlesex University.
Apart from the house, one of the main features is the lake formed by damming the delightfully named Leeging Beech Gutter which is a tributary of Salmon's Brook, which in turn flows into the River Lea. The head of the lake is in the trees ahead to the left, with a smaller lake above that to the right.
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