HISTORY (CREATION OF THE PARK)
NEW PARK COVERS 82 ACRES
The private grounds at Eastfield on Kettering Road on the outskirts of Northampton, residence of the late Major and Mrs A E Ray, have been acquired by Northampton Corporation as a new park.
So read an article in the Northampton Mercury dated Friday 1st July, 1949. However, one should never believe everything printed in newspapers and it was, in fact, incorrect. It was never intended that all 82 acres should become a park. Corporation records at the time speak of '63 acres .... scheduled in the Town Planning development proposals as a public open space and 19 acres for housing.' The records also reveal that the land was purchased from the Executors of the late Mrs A E Ray for the sum of £8,600 plus £117 12s 0d surveyor’s fees and legal costs, and expenses in preparation and cancellation of auction.
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​The land did not become a public park immediately. From 1950 to 1953 the Corporation received revenue from the sale of wheat and rent for grazing cattle from the Eastfield Estate. Nevertheless, in 1950, 12.55 acres of the land adjacent to Booth Lane was leased for 99 years to the Youth Organisation Committee and the change of use from agriculture to playing field recorded. Even today, many maps show the area around the football pitches as 'playing field' distinct from the rest of the Park.​
The Eastfield Housing Estate was planned by J Lewis Womersley, Borough Architect and Town Planning Officer for Northampton,in the early 1950s, based on what was then the novel Radburn design. Planning permission for 600 houses was given in May 1952. The estate was built on the southern part of the former Eastfield House grounds (formerly grounds of Weston Favell House) thus giving the Park more or less its current outline. In 1957, an article in the Chronicle & Echo suggested that the new Eastfield Estate had a 'rural setting' with a beautiful Park nearby. However, local residents complained about the lack of safe facilities for children. In 1959 the first steps were taken to develop a children's play area. Dangerous buildings were removed, some ponds were filled in and the park we know and love was formed.
The Radburn-designed Eastfield Estate gives Eastfiled Park its southern border
​The Eastfield Housing Estate was seen as inseparable from Eastfield Park. Womersley
himself referred to the estate greens as 'extending fingers of the Park running into the heart of the layout'.