Overview

Fantastic visit, grounds are huge, well maintained, lots to see and admire. On our PART THREE of visit to COWORTH PARK we take a drive around the estate. To help disabled person, if at all possible, we would suggest you take this drive around the estate before parking outside the mansion, as it is a very pleasant easy drive round in a circle to return to the Mansion again ready to step inside as we reviewed for you on PART ONE. We invite you to stay with us and read this PART THREE and its concluding history lesson that you might find very interesting. In the mid-1980’s following the sale of COWORTH PARK by the holiday company, it was bought by the British-Canadian billionaire Willard Gordon Galen Weston, listed as the third wealthiest in Canada, who owned the Selfridge Group, and Fortnum & Mason in the United Kingdom, and he happily took control of COWORTH PARK. He was born on 29th October 1940 at MARLOW Buckinghamshire, to Rita Lila (Howard) and husband W.Garfield Weston, and was the youngest of their nine children, educated at St Paul’s school, London between 1954 and 1959, then worked in the stores his father owned as a retail holding. In 1962 he moved to Dublin and started a grocery store with his own money, and successfully set up outlets into the Powers chain of supermarkets. In 1966 he married Hilary Frayne, and they had two children, Alannah and Galen Weston jr. As a successful wealthy man, he had an attempted kidnapping of himself by the Irish Repubican army, but the police had been tipped off, and following a gun fight, two kidnappers were killed. Over the years he involved himself with many charities, donating millions to support them, and setting up various institutes, one being the Nature Conservancy of Canada to help preserve wilderness lands. In 2020 during the Covid-pandemic, his Garfield-Weston foundation helped with an initiative 25 million pound support for mid to large scale organisations to battle on through the virus and so continued to help so many, and in appreciation of this and other charitable works he was awarded the Order of Ontario in 2005. While at COWORTH PARK, he developed the properties first Polo club, followed by a second Polo ground, which hold many competitions on these fields throughout the season. Both grounds are managed by the name “Guards Polo at COWORTH PARK” with offices at Smiths Lawn. This is the only hotel in the UK that provides its own polo grounds. After a successful and rewarding life, he died after a long illness on 12th April 2021, at his home in Toronto. COWORTH PARK was then bought by the Dorchester Collection, as we have shown on our PART ONE review of the mansion. DO READ ALL THREE REVIEWS TO ENJOY THE FULL STORY. ================================================================== OUR PHOTOS TO TAKE YOU AROUND THE ESTATE From the mansion, we suggest you drive round the park, as it is quite a walk otherwise, so follow back towards the main gate at start of the driveway (photo 1) or take this ride first of all before pulling in to the car park for the mansion. From the gate turn left and follow the signs for Mansion House, and Woven (photo 2) It is a pleasant ride along the meadows, and ideal during the Spring as daffodils are in full bloom (photo 3). Over to the left the low lying Spa and Fitness centre can be seen (photo 4) it’s car park is signed and stands just before you reach the Spa, but it’s a bit of a way to walk from the car park to the Spa, but driving on you will pass the very pleasant pool and walkway (photo 5) then you reach the main House (photo 6). If your carer is fit enough and willing, why not pull into the main car park which is over to the LEFT of the main house, and follow the curved path that leads towards the Mansion (photo 7) but walking to pass the entrance for the house just continue to the far corner and turn left to follow the path towards the gardens. Then turn left to go along the long path and passing the formal gardens that lead towards the Tennis court (photo 8) This is a nice little walk anyway (photo 9) and the Tennis court (photo 10) will take you along to continue your walk towards the stone buildings ahead (photo 11). Just walk straight ahead to pass the delightful cottages and you will come out onto the main drive (photo 12) TURN RIGHT and pass the round bricked tower (photo 13) then pass the stream (photo 14) and up to “The Barn restaurant” (photo 15) This is open until about 2.30pm, and you may wish to cross the bridge and pop in for a light snack of a coffee break. Back across the bridge, Turn left and head towards the car park ahead that is used for The Barn, and enjoy the views over the open fields and house the meadow for the Polo horses (photo 16) The grounds for the polo games will be seen when you drive all the way round the estate when leaving the hotel to return to your next destination and driving left from the main car park you are in.

Transport & Parking

This part of review just involves the grounds, which are easily seen when driving around the estate, no parking needed, just quick stops here and there, a joy to see.

Access

Just a lovely drive, and if disabled needs to get out of car to see something, then there are no problems to worry about.

Toilets

Staff

Photos