Trent Country Park
Looking east in Trent Park from near the entrance opposite Oakwood Station.
Type	Country park
Location	Cockfosters, London, UK
Coordinates	51°39′36″N 0°08′04″W / 51.66°N 0.13444°W / 51.66; -0.13444Coordinates: 51°39′36″N 0°08′04″W / 51.66°N 0.13444°W / 51.66; -0.13444
Area	320 hectares (3.2 km2)
Created	1973
Operated by	London Borough of Enfield
Status	Open all year

Trent Park is a country park, formerly the grounds of a mansion house. The house itself currently forms the Trent Park campus of Middlesex University in the north of London, United Kingdom. The campus is home to the performing arts, teacher education, humanities, product design and engineering, television production and biological science departments of the university and the Flood Hazard Research Centre. The sports ground in the park, Southgate Hockey Centre, provides facilities for the local community and the university.

History[link]

Trent Park dates back to the fourteenth century when it was part of Enfield Chase, one of Henry IV's hunting grounds. In 1777 George III leased the site to Sir Richard Jebb his favourite doctor as a reward for saving the life of the King's younger brother, the then Duke of Gloucester. Jebb chose the name Trent, because it was in Trento that the King's brother had been saved.^[1]

In about 1836 the house was bought by the banker David Bevan for his son Robert Cooper Lee Bevan on his marriage to Lady Agneta Yorke. Robert Bevan built Christ Church, Trent, in 1838 to provide a suitable place of worship for the district. In 1909 the estate was sold to Philip Sassoon (cousin of the poet Siegfried Sassoon), who entertained many celebrity guests at Trent Park, including Charlie Chaplin and Winston Churchill.

During World War II Trent Park was used as a special prisoner of war camp for captured German generals and staff officers. They were treated reasonably hospitably with special rations of whisky and regular walks in the grounds. Many of the rooms inside the mansion had been equipped with hidden microphones and listening devices, and thus the British military was able to gather important military information and an intimate inside-view into the minds of the German military elite. They received information about war crimes, political views and got a clearer picture of the military resistance that led to the unsuccessful coup on July 20, 1944. 84 Generals and a number of lower ranking staff officers were brought to Trent Park. More than 1,300 protocols were written by the time the war ended; a selection of these was published in English in 2007 under the title Tapping Hitler's Generals. .^[2][3] Selected transcripts were dramatized in the 2008 History Channel 5-part series The Wehrmacht. In the episode The Crimes, General Dietrich von Choltitz is quoted as saying in October 1944:

We all share the guilt. We went along with everything, and we half-took the Nazis seriously, instead of saying "to hell with you and your stupid nonsense". I misled my soldiers into believing this rubbish. I feel utterly ashamed of myself. Perhaps we bear even more guilt than these uneducated animals. (apparently in reference to Hitler and other Nazi Party members)

In 1951 the estate became the then Trent Park College, which became part of Middlesex Polytechnic in 1978, which itself became Middlesex University in 1992. The University's Vice-Chancellor is provided with a residence within the park. Though not so grand as the main house, this does nevertheless boast several small private gardens including a rose garden. Other University buildings including student residences and offices are nearby. Middlesex University is vacating the site summer 2012.^{[citation needed]}

In the mid-1990s, Middlesex University and Southgate Sports and Leisure Trust (SSLT) reached agreement to develop the dilapidated university sports ground. In 1997-98 SSLT built a clubhouse and two artificial grass pitches on the site, which was opened in March 1998 as Southgate Hockey Centre. It is home to Southgate Hockey Club, and provides sports and social facilities to the local community and the university.

Country Park[link]

In 1973 Trent Park was opened to the public as a country park, which surrounds the university campus and is 320 hectares in area.^[4]

The country park includes publicly accessible countryside, farmland, a golf course and an equestrian centre. Some of the grounds were attractively landscaped by Humphry Repton in the English manner (some also attribute the work of Capability Brown). Features of the original landscaping that can still be seen include an impressive avenue of lime trees, an obelisk, ornamental lakes and a water garden. The water garden was renovated by Park Ranger, Arthur Newson in the 1990s.

The original mansion and a number of statues and other structures located within the grounds (such as the Orangery) are Grade II listed buildings. The site is designated as Metropolitan Green Belt, and lies within a conservation area and is also included within the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.

The park is open to the public and the closest London Underground stations are Oakwood and Cockfosters. During the summer months a number of concerts and festivals take place there.

Camlet Moat[link]

Camlet Moat

Within the grounds of the country park, close to the Hadley Road entrance, can be found a small moated isle known locally as Camlet Moat. The name has been abbreviated over the years from "Camelot"^{[citation needed]}, and it first appeared in local records in 520.^[5]

A survey of the area conducted between 1656 and 1658 attributes the site as the seat of habitation of Geoffrey de Mandeville during the reign of William the Conqueror^{[citation needed]}. In 1429, the lodge was demolished and the materials sold to help pay for repairs to Hereford Castle.^[5]

Sir Philip Sassoon conducted excavations in the 1920s and was reported to have found oak beams which formed the basis of a drawbridge, Roman shoes and daggers as well as mosaic tiles depicting a knight on a white horseback. The foundations of a large stone building were also found. English Heritage refilled the excavations in 1999.

References[link]

• Audrey Nona Gamble, A History of the Bevan Family, London, 1924

External links[link]

• Middlesex University
• Middlesex University Page on Trent Park
• Trent Park Golf Club
• Southgate Hockey Centre
• Southgate Hockey Club
• Trent Park Golf Centre (Crown Golf)
• Trent Park Running Club
• Trent Park Equestrian Centre (Riding School)
• Trent Park on the VisitWoods website

v t e Parks and open spaces in London Royal parks Bushy Green Greenwich Hyde Kensington Regent's Richmond St James's Large urban parks Alexandra Battersea Blackheath Burgess Crystal Palace Finsbury Hampstead Heath Parliament Hill Southwark Victoria Wimbledon Country parks Bayhurst Wood Belhus Woods Eastbrookend Fairlop Waters Fryent Hainault Forest Havering High Elms Hornchurch Lee Valley South Norwood Stanmore Stockley Trent Commons Barnes Bromley Cannon Hill Clapham Eel Brook East Sheen Ham Hayes Kenley Mitcham Old Oak Peckham Rye Plumstead Putney Putney Lower Stanmore Stoke Newington Streatham Tooting Tylers Wandsworth Wimbledon Winn's Marshes Aveley Crayford Erith Hackney Hornchurch Ingrebourne Leyton Rainham Tottenham Walthamstow Wennington Woodland Bostall Coldfall Dulwich Epping Forest Grangewood Park Highgate Lesnes Abbey Oxleas Queen's Russia Dock Sydenham Hill House gardens Belair Park Boston Manor House Cannizaro Park Danson Park Grovelands Park Grove Park Hampton Court Park Kenwood House Langtons Morden Hall Park Osterley Park Syon House Entry-fee charging Kew Gardens London Wetland Centre Community gardens Phoenix Garden Calthorpe Project

Trent Parke (born 1971) is an Australian photographer.

Parke was born and brought up in Newcastle (NSW); he now lives in Sydney. He started photography when he was twelve. In 2003 he and his wife, the photographer Narelle Autio, made a 90,000 km trip around Australia, resulting in the series and book "Minutes to Midnight".^[1] He has won numerous national and international awards for his photography including four World Press Photo Awards. He has worked as a photojournalist for The Australian newspaper.

Parke's photographs are held in numerous public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), the Australian National Maritime Museum (Sydney), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney) and the University of Sydney Union.^[2] He is the only Australian to be represented by Magnum Photos^[3] and his series "Welcome to Nowhere" was included in their 60th anniversary exhibition "New Blood".

Awards[link]

• 1996/98 5 Gold Lenses, International Olympic Committee^[2]
• 1999 World Press Photo Award (for “Bathurst Car Races”)^[2]
• 2000 World Press Photo Award (for “The Seventh Wave”)^[2]
• 2000 Canon photo essay prize, Sasakawa World Sports Awards^[2]
• 2001 World Press Photo Award (for “Australian Roadkill” series)^[2]
• 2003 Eugene W. Smith Award for humanistic photography^[2]
• 2005 World Press Photo Award ( for “Wiluna”)^[2]

Exhibitions[link]

• 2000 The Seventh Wave (with Narelle Autio) - Stills Gallery, Sydney^[3]
• 2002 Dream/Life and The Seventh Wave (with Narelle Autio) - Canvas International Art Gallery, Amsterdam^[3]
• 2002 Dva Pivo Prosim (Two Beers Please) (with Narelle Autio) - Stills Gallery, Sydney^[4]
• 2002 Sydney Treasures, Art & About, Sydney^[3]
• 2002 Dream/Life & Beyond - Stills Gallery, Sydney^[4]
• 2004 Dream/Life & the Seventh Wave (with Narelle Autio) - FotoFreo Photographic Festival, Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle^[3]
• 2004 Dream/Life & the Seventh Wave (with Narelle Autio) - Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, New York^[3]
• 2004 Suspended States, Sydney Arts Festival^[3]
• 2004 Minutes to Midnight - Part One, Leica Gallery, Germany^[3]
• 2005 Minutes to Midnight, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney^[5]
• 2005 Colour Work, Stills Gallery, Sydney^[6]
• 2006 Minutes to Midnight, Wollongong City Gallery^[7]
• 2008 Christmas Tree Bucket, Stills Gallery, Sydney^[3]
• 2009 Minutes to Midnight, Children's Art Gallery, National Gallery of Australia^[3]
• 2009 Please step quietly everyone can hear you, Sydney Opera House^[3]

Books[link]

• Dream Life. Hot Chilli Press, 1999. ISBN 0-646-37991-7.
• The Seventh Wave. Hot Chilli Press, 2000. ISBN 0-646-39747-8; ISBN 0-646-39746-X (pbk).
• Minutes to Midnight. Filigranes, 2005. ISBN 978-2-35046-041-3.
• Bedknobs & Broomsticks. Little Brown Mushroom 2010. ISBN 978-0-615-37550-2.

References[link]

1. ^ "Trent Parke", Magnum Photos (London: Thames & Hudson, 2008; ISBN 978-0-500-41094-3), n.p.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} "Trent Parke", Magnum Photos. Accessed 14 August 2009.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} "Trent Parke", Stills Gallery. Accessed 14 August 2009.
4. ^ ^{a b} Exhibition notices, Stills Gallery. Accessed 15 August 2009.
5. ^ 2005 events, Australian Centre for Photography. Accessed 15 August 2009.
6. ^ Exhibition notice, Stills Gallery. Accessed 15 August 2009.
7. ^ Events page, Stills Gallery. Accessed 15 August 2009.