Princes Park in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, is a public park east of

Town Centre and the

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

seafront. The park consists of an 18 hole putting green, a

bowling green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

, a boating lake (known as Crumbles Pond) and 2 small children's play areas, one of which has a paddling pool. There is also a football ground within the park, known as The Oval, which is the home of Eastbourne United A.F.C., and a playing field which hosts

travelling funfair A traveling carnival (American English), usually simply called a carnival, travelling funfair or travelling show (British English), is an amusement show that may be made up of amusement rides, food vendors, merchandise vendors, games of chan ...

s and

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

es several times per year. Princes Park entrance - geograph

The park was originally called Gilbert's Recreation Ground, named after the land owner, and was leased to

Eastbourne Borough Council Eastbourne Borough Council is the local authority for Eastbourne in East Sussex, England. Eastbourne has had an elected council since 1859, which has been reformed on several occasions. Since 1974, Eastbourne has been a non-metropolitan district ...

in 1907. On 30 June 1931,

King Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January ...

, at that time the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

, visited the park and planted an Evergreen Oak; the park was shortly after renamed Prince's Park in his honour. In the mid 1940s the local council was looking to develop part of the park into a sports arena with an athletics track and grass cycle track, and in 1946 Eastbourne Old Comrades Football Club was invited to play their games at the ground after their original ground, called Lynchmere was sold for redevelopment. In the 1970s Eastbourne Borough played their home games on the playing field here before moving to

Priory Lane image:Eastbourne Borough River End Stand.jpg, 170px, River End Stand image:Eastbourne Borough Scoreboard.jpg, 170px, Scoreboard image:Priory lane plan.JPG, 170px, Plan of Priory Lane Priory Lane is an association football stadium located in La ...

References

External links

Official Website
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