History
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 Trent, Italy, that the King's brother had been saved.
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 notable guests at Trent Park, including Charlie Chaplin and Winston Churchill.
During the Second World War, 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. . 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 was provided with a residence within the park. Though not so grand as the main house, this nevertheless boasted several small private gardens including a rose garden.
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. Other past and present University buildings, including student residences and offices are nearby. However, Middlesex University vacated the Trent Park site in October 2012.
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