Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, England Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, England history Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, England Woburn Abbey (/woʊbən/[n 1][1]) occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, along with the diverse estate surrounding it, including the historic landscape gardens and deer park (by Humphry Repton), as well as more recently added attractions including Woburn Safari Park, a miniature railway and a garden/visitor centre. Pre-20th century Woburn Abbey, comprising Woburn Park and its buildings, was set out and founded as a Cistercian abbey in 1145.[2] Taken from its monastic residents by Henry VIII and given to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, in 1547, it became the seat of the Russell family and the Dukes of Bedford.

The Abbey was largely rebuilt starting in 1744 by the architects Henry Flitcroft and Henry Holland for the 4th Duke.[2] Anna Maria, the wife of the 7th Duke, originated the afternoon tea ritual in 19th-century England.[3][4] In April 1786 John Adams (the future second President of the United States on tour with Thomas Jefferson—who would serve as his vice president before becoming President himself) visited Woburn Abbey and other notable houses in the area. After visiting them he wrote in his diary "Stowe, Hagley, and Blenheim, are superb; Woburn, Caversham, and the Leasowes are beautiful. Wotton is both great and elegant, though neglected".[5] However in his diary he was also damning about the means used to finance the large estates, and he did not think that the embellishments to the landscape, made by the owners of the great country houses, would suit the more rugged American countryside.[5] 1945 to 1970s Following World War II, dry rot was discovered and half the Abbey was subsequently demolished.

When the 12th Duke died in 1953, his son the 13th Duke was exposed to heavy death duties and the Abbey was a half-demolished, half-derelict house. Instead of handing the family estates over to the National Trust, he kept ownership and opened the Abbey to the public for the first time in 1955. It soon gained in popularity as other amusements were added, including Woburn Safari Park on the grounds of the Abbey in 1970. Asked about the unfavourable comments by other aristocrats when he turned the family home into a safari park, the 13th Duke said, "I do not relish the scorn of the peerage, but it is better to be looked down on than overlooked." 1970s to present The 13th Duke moved to Monte Carlo in 1975.[6] His son Robin, who enjoyed the courtesy title Marquess of Tavistock, ran the Abbey with his wife in his father's absence.

In the early 1990s, the Marquess and The Tussauds Group planned to turn the Abbey into a large theme park with the help of John Wardley, creator of the roller coasters "Nemesis" and "Oblivion". However, Tussauds bought Alton Towers and built one there instead. From 1999 to 2002, the Marquess and the Marchioness, the former Henrietta Joan Tiarks, were the subjects of the Tiger Aspect Productions reality series Country House in three series, totalling 29 episodes, which aired on BBC Two. It detailed the daily life and the business of running the Abbey.[7] It inspired several Monarch of the Glen storylines. The Marquess of Tavistock became the 14th Duke on the death of his father in November 2002 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. The 14th Duke was the briefest holder of the Dukedom and died in June 2003.

On the death of the 14th Duke, his son Andrew became the 15th Duke, and he continues his father's work in running the Woburn Abbey Estate. The building is listed in the highest category of architecture at Grade I.[8] Collection The art collection of the Duke of Bedford is amongst the finest in private hands, and encompasses a wide range of western artwork. The holdings comprise some 250 paintings, including works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Canaletto and Velasquez.

Moreover, the collection encompasses examples of the most expensive manufacturers of furniture, French and English in many periods, and a diverse collection of porcelain and silverware.[9] Paintings Dutch School Asselyn, Jan - 1 painting Cuyp, Aelbert Jacobsz - 5 paintings Delen, Dirk van - 1 painting Flinck, Govert - 1 painting Goyen, Jan van - 1 painting Potter, Paulus - 2 paintings (A Hawking Party, 1653) Rembrandt, Harmenszoon van Rijn - 2 paintings (Boaz, 1643 and Self-portrait, 1640) Ruisdael, Jacob van - 2 paintings Steen, Jan - 2 paintings Velde, Willem van de Velde (the Younger) - 1 painting Werff, Adrian van der - 1 painting English School Gainsborough, Thomas - 1 painting Gheeraerts, Marcus (the Younger) - 2 paintings Hayter, Sir George - 4 paintings Hoppner, John - 2 paintings Knapton, George - 1 painting Landseer, Edwin Henry - 2 paintings Reynolds, Joshua - 

12 paintings George Gower - (The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I, 1588?, one of the greatest English portraits in existence) Flemish School Critz, John de - 1 painting Dyck, Anthony van - 10 paintings (Aubert Lemire, Dean of Antwerp, c.

1630) Eworth, Hans - 1 painting French School Bercham, Nicholas - 1 painting Lorrain, Claude (known as Claude Gellée) - 2 paintings Lefebvre, Claude - 1 painting Loo, Carl van - 1 painting (Portrait of Louis XV) Poussin, Nicolas - 2 paintings Vernet, Claude Joseph - 2 paintings German School Holbein, Hans (the Younger) - 1 painting Italian School Batoni, Pompeo - 1 painting Canaletto - 24 paintings (View of the Entrance to the Venetian Arsenal, c.

1732 - one of Canaletto's greatest works) Ricci, Sebastiano - 1 painting Salvi, Giovanni (Il Sassoferrato) - 2 paintings Spanish School Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban - 1 painting Velázquez, Diego - 1 painting (Portrait of Admiral Pulido Peraja, Captain General of the Armada Fleet of New Spain) Books, films and television In 1970, Lucio Fulci filmed scenes for A Lizard in a Woman's Skin there.[citation needed] In May 1973, scenes from Coronation Street were set there and featured a cameo by the 13th Duke.

He played himself greeting the characters: one of them, Hilda Ogden, was very impressed with the 'Canney-Letty' [sic] (Canaletto) room.[10] In Anthony Horowitz's 1987 book Public Enemy Number Two, the book's main character Nick Diamond is framed for the theft of the Woburn Carbuncles as part of a plan by two Scotland Yard detectives to imprison him in order to find out the identity of a criminal mastermind known as The Fence—who ironically turns out to be the class teacher who was supervising Diamond and the other children on the school trip to Woburn Abbey.[11] The Children's Film Foundation made a movie in 1957 called Five Clues to Fortune aka The Treasure at Woburn Abbey.[citation needed] Director Joe Mendoza filmed in and around Woburn Abbey and the Wildlife Park. David Hemmings David Gower Mike Tyson and David Cameron play major parts.[citation needed] In 1977 and again in 2003 singer Neil Diamond held a series of concerts on the front lawn of the Abbey. The 1977 concerts were a part of a television programme broadcast in the United States.

In film and television, Woburn Abbey has been used as a filming location for films and programmes including The Iron Maiden (1962), The Flower of Gloster (1967) and Treasure Hunt (1986).[12] In The Protector's War, a post-apocalyptic alternate history novel by S. M. Stirling, Woburn Abbey serves as a prison for an English knight; the knight is rescued and flees to the Willamette Valley of Oregon in what was the United States of America. Notes and references Notes Jump up ^ Locally until c.1960 referring to the Village or Abbey /wuːbərn/ References Jump up ^ "Woburn Abbey". Collins Dictionary. n.d. Retrieved 23 September 2014. ^ Jump up to: a b Chisholm 1911, Woburn, England. Jump up ^ "Woburn Abbey and Gardens". woburn.co.uk. Jump up ^ "Woburn Abbey". Encyclopedia Britannica. ^ Jump up to: a b Adams & Adams 1851, p. 394.

Jump up ^ "The Duchess of Bedford" by Nicole Nobody Jump up ^ "Benidorm Series 1". TigerAspect.co.uk. Jump up ^ Woburn Abbey - Grade I Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1114006)". National Heritage List for England. Jump up ^ Woburn Abbey (Park and Garden) - Grade I - Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1000364)". National Heritage List for England. Jump up ^ "ITV - Coronation Street". solarnavigator.net. Jump up ^ "Public Enemy Number Two (Diamond Brother Mysteries): Anthony Horowitz". amazon.com. Jump up ^ "IMDb: Most Popular Titles With Filming Locations Matching "Woburn Abbey"". IMDb. References Adams, John; Adams, Charles Francis (1851). The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: Autobiography, continued. Diary. Essays and controversial papers of the Revolution. The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States 3. Little, Brown,. p. 394. Attribution Public Domain Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).

"Woburn, England". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. Further reading Angelicoussis, Elizabeth (1992). The Woburn Abbey Collection of Classical Antiquities, Monumenta Artis Romanae XX. Zabern. ISBN 978-3-8053-1303-2. External links[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Woburn Abbey. Official website Duke of Bedford Is Dead at 63; Ran Family's Woburn Estates - The New York Times The New York Times World |Duke of Bedford Is Dead at 63; Ran Family's Woburn Estates Search Continue reading the main story Henry Robin Ian Russell, the 14th Duke of Bedford, a diffident British aristocrat who despite ill health combined a lucrative business career in London with successful management of his enormous family seat at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, died on Friday in London. He was 63.

No cause of death was announced, but in 1988, when he was still Marquess of Tavistock, he had a severe stroke; he suffered a second stroke in 2000 but again recovered. According to the London Sunday Times's 2003 list of the richest people in Britain, the 14th duke, who inherited the title only last October, and his family are worth about $620 million. The title now passes to his eldest son, Andrew Ian Henry. As head of the house of Russell, which has played a significant role in British history over the last four centuries, the 14th Duke of Bedford traced his ancestry back to the Norman du Rosels, though it was under Henry VIII that the family rose to real wealth and power, acquiring among other possessions the buildings and lands of Woburn Abbey, originally founded by the Cistercian order; they rebuilt it as a vast stately home in the 18th century. It was his father, the 13th duke, who first turned it into a lucrative tourist attraction. The 14th duke was born on Jan.

21, 1940, at the Ritz Hotel in London, where his parents kept a suite. Educated at Le Rosey in Switzerland and at Harvard, where he never earned a degree, he led a shy, lonely and introspective youth, and through his life lacked his father's flair for publicity. Advertisement Continue reading the main story He embarked on a financial career in London in 1970, joining the stockbroking firm of De Zoete & Bevan, where he became a partner in 1982. He was chairman of Cedar Investment Trust from 1973 to 1983 and a director of Trafalgar House from 1977 to 1991. He was chairman of Berkeley Govett (now London Pacific Group), as well as of TR Property Investment Trust and Berkeley Development Capital. In 1961, he married Henrietta Joan Tiarks, a society beauty from a banking family. In 1974 he took over the management of Woburn Abbey and its estates.

As The Guardian of London recalled in the duke's obituary, his wife never concealed her dislike of Woburn, with its 75 rooms, 21 works by Canaletto in the dining room, a Sèvres dinner service that once belonged to Louis XV and a 13,000-acre estate. They tended to spend most of their time in a smaller house some miles away. But the duke continued to develop the tourist attraction, with its fun fair and safari park, adding a successful golf course and an antiques center with about 40 shops, ''in effect an entire leisure complex,'' as The Independent described it. His ambition, he was quoted as saying, was ''to be a good duke.'' He helped save the Père David deer from extinction, The Times of London noted in its obituary. The species, descended from the Imperial Herd of China, now enjoys the largest breeding herd in the world at Woburn. He also organized open-air pop concerts on the grounds.

But he had to abandon all these activities after his stroke in 1988, and in 1991 his wife published an account of his slow recovery from what he described as being ''95 percent dead,'' titled ''A Chance to Live.'' Furious protests greeted his attempt in 1990 to sell a marble statue by Canova, ''The Three Graces,'' to the Getty Museum in California for almost $13 million. In the end, the piece was jointly acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the National Gallery of Scotland, with help from the late Sir Paul Getty. The duke and his family were featured in a BBC documentary called ''Country House.'' As The Independent emphasized in its obituary, the duke also loved horse racing and breeding, keeping brood mares at Woburn and in Kentucky and owning a horse stud in New Zealand. He is survived by his wife and three sons, Andrew Ian Henry, who took over the management of Woburn last year, Robin Loel Hastings and James Edward Herband.

About Us About Us The historic Woburn Estate encompasses: Woburn Abbey and Gardens Woburn Abbey first opened to the public in 1955 and has welcomed visitors from all over the globe ever since. The 22 rooms that visitors can explore, house one of the most significant private art collections in the world. Visitors will also discover 18th Century French and English furniture, magnificent silver and gold collections, a range of porcelain and many privately collected items treasured by generations of the Russell family. Set within 3,000 acres of Deer Park, home to nine free roaming species of deer, The Abbey’s captivating rooms and fascinating antiques show a personal side to a public family that has been instrumental in many significant periods of English history. Visitors can also explore 28 acres of Humphry Repton inspired gardens. Developed by our dedicated Gardens team, the award winning Woburn Abbey Gardens offer visitors, everything from flower beds bursting with colour around neat, green lawns through to ponds and woodland areas that help to preserve local biodiversity.

Highlights include the bog garden, designed in the 21st century to make use of a boggy patch and historic features, such as the romantic Doric Temple and Wyattville Seat. Woburn Abbey Deer Farm Website Woburn Safari Park Opened in 1970, Woburn Safari Park is one of the UK’s oldest wild animal parks and has over 80 species of wild animals roaming in 300 acres of beautiful parkland. Established by the 13th Duke of Bedford, the park has a long history of species conservation dating back more than 100 years. Today, Woburn Safari Park is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence for the conservation of endangered wildlife and houses probably the biggest concentration of critically endangered African ungulates (hoofed mammals) on Earth. Woburn Safari Park is a member of and contributor to the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). Woburn Golf Club Woburn Golf Club has three tournament hosting golf courses, namely the Duke’s, Duchess’ and Marquess’ courses.

Since hosting the Dunlop British Masters in 1979, more than fifty professional tournaments have been played over the three courses at Woburn. The role of honour at Woburn Golf Club reads like a who’s who of world golf. Seven former winners are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame: Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Greg Norman, Patty Sheehan, Lee Trevino, Karrie Webb, plus major winners Laura Davies and Ian Woosnam. In 2005 the Seniors Open Amateur Championship was staged on the Duke’s and Duchess’ courses and in 2011 the English Amateur Championship was staged on the Duchess’ and Marquess’ courses. In 2014, Woburn Golf Club was one of four venues used to host final qualifying for The Open Championship. Woburn Golf Club Website The Woburn Hotel With its spacious and relaxed seating areas, contemporary and individually designed bedrooms and cottage suites and the multi award- winning restaurant, Olivier's, The Woburn Hotel offers a modern twist on a country classic house.

Formerly named The Inn at Woburn and situated in the heart of the picturesque Georgian Village of Woburn, The Woburn Hotel stands proudly at the gateway to The Woburn Estate. In May 2014, The Woburn Hotel was awarded ‘Hotel of The Year’ at The Milton Keynes Food and Leisure awards. Olivier’s Restaurant, the hotel's 2 AA Rosette restaurant was named ‘Restaurant of the Year’. The Woburn Hotel Website The Bedford Estates The Woburn Estate forms part of The Bedford Estates, which also includes property holdings in Bloomsbury, London WC1. Genealogy Projects: Duke_of_Bedford Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, England Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, England Woburn Abbey (/woʊbən/[n 1][1]) occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, along with the diverse estate surrounding it, including the historic landscape gardens ...

Tags: History of Woburn Abbey Hugh de Bolebec founds Woburn Abbey, with monks from Fountains Abbey. Pictured: A charter granting lands in Wavendon from around 1200. 1538 Abbot Robert Hobbes is executed for treason by Henry VIII and the Abbey is dissolved. Pictured: The Abbot was hung from a tree in the park. It is thought to be this tree still standing today. 1547 Sir John Russell is given Woburn Abbey by Edward VI and in 1550, following instructions in the will of his father, Henry VIII, John is created 1st Earl of Bedford. Pictured: John, 1st Earl of Bedford, after Hans Holbein 1620s Francis, 4th Earl, moves his family into Woburn Abbey. In the 1630s he builds the two-storey north wing, with the grotto. Both are still part of the house today. Pictured: The Grotto.

1647 King Charles I had previously twice visited Woburn as a welcomed guest but on his third visit he was the prisoner of Parliament and had a fateful meeting with Oliver Cromwell. Pictured: A walking stick given to William, 5th Earl, by King Charles I at Woburn in 1647. 1683 William, Lord Russell is executed for his involvement in the Rye House Plot. Posthumously pardoned by William III and Mary II, his father is granted the Dukedom of Bedford in 1694. Pictured: The posthumous pardon for the wrongful execution of the 5th Earl’s eldest son, William. 1731 The future 4th Duke’s Grand Tour takes him to Venice where he commissions paintings by Canaletto as a souvenir. Pictured: The largest collection of Venetian views in one room, painted by Canaletto. 1747 The 4th Duke employs Henry Flitcroft to rebuild the West Wing, turning Woburn Abbey into a graceful Palladian house. Pictured: The West Front, Woburn Abbey.

1763 The 4th Duke negotiates the Treaty of Paris, which ends the Seven Years’ War. Louis XV gifts a Sèvres porcelain service in appreciation. Pictured: Sèvres Mortar. 1817 The Abbey Gardens is the site of the world’s first ecological experiments whose results later influence Darwin’s argument on the origin of the species. Pictured: Grass Garden plan from 1817. 1832 Lord John Russell is instrumental in the passing of the Reform Bill through parliament and twice becomes Prime Minister during Queen Victoria’s reign. Pictured: Parquetry bureau a cylindre used by Lord John Russell. 1840s Afternoon Tea is said to have been popularised by Duchess Anna Maria, wife of the 7th Duke, who entertained her friends at Woburn Abbey. Pictured: The Blue Drawing Room. 1841 Royal visit by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Although the guest State Bedroom had been used for many visiting dignitaries it has since been called Queen Victoria’s Bedroom. Pictured: Queen Victoria’s Bedroom .

1914 Mary, wife of the 11th Duke, takes on the role of administrator and nurse and turns Woburn Abbey into a military hospital during WWI. Pictured: The riding school converted into a military hospital. 1937 After several record breaking flights in previous years, Mary disappears on a solo flight to Norfolk. Pictured: Duchess Mary, also known as The Flying Duchess, c.1935. 1939-1945 Woburn Abbey is offered to the Government for black propaganda headquarters and billeting of Wrens from Bletchley Park during WWII. Pictured: Aerial view before the east wing, riding school and tennis court were demolished in 1950. 1955 The Abbey opens to public visitors. 1999-2002 The 14th Duke and Duchess become television favourites on the TV series ‘Country House’. Pictured: The 14th Duke and Duchess on their 40th wedding anniversary. 2003 Andrew, the 15th and present Duke, inherits the Estate. Pictured: The 15th Duke and Duchess.

2004-2014 Bedfordshire, EnglandGenWeb Project Search billions of records on Ancestry.com Woburn Abbey Home of the Dukes of Bedford This abbey was once inhabited by a group of Cisterian Monks. This means that it was a strict Roman Catholic monastery. These abbeys were to some a peaceful area of retreat. By the time 1543 rolled around it was no longer a peaceful retreat, though. The Abbot Hobbs was found guilty of "Treasonable utterances against the King" and he was hanged on an oak at the gate of the Abbey. For some mysterious reason, the successive generations of Russells maintained the ancient oak tree where the last abbot of the monastery was hanged which still remains to remind us of his death. King Edward VI confiscated the land owned by the Cistercian monastery and granted it to John Russell, the first Earl of Bedford in 1574. The abbey itself is an 18th-century mansion although the house's history began in 1145 when Hugh deBolebec built an abbey here for Cistercian monks. Some of the old stone had been incorporated into the foundations of the mansion.

The abbey was confiscated in 1538 under the orders of King Henry VIII for 'treasonable utterances' and given to Sir John Russell for services to the crown in 1547. It became the family seat of the Russell family in 1619. It had been home to the Dukes and Earls since 1627 when Francis, succeeding his cousin as Fourth Earl, decided to build on the remains of the Cistercian abbey. The Russell family was of Protestant religion. In 1694 Lord Russell was among those who plotted against the Roman Catholic Duke of York coming to the throne. This plot was discovered and Lord Russell was executed. In recognition of Lord Russell's sacrifice for Protestantism, his father was made Duke of Bedford and Marquess of Tavistock by William III. In 1747 the house was partially reconstructed and extended by the Palladian architect Henry Flitcroft (in 1747-61) who built Woburn Abbey into most of what we see today.

The next major building period was in 1786 under the direction of Henry Holland (also in 1787-88) and although some of Holland's work had to be demolised in 1949 his influence remains in the Canaletto room and Library. Henry Holland was also closely involved in the design and construction of Broadlands. The 13th Duke of Bedford, succeeding to the title and to severe death duties (inheritance taxes) in 1953, determined to realise to the full the potential earning power of a "stately home" and opened it as a paying tourist attraction. He was a resourceful publicist, and, by the end of the 1950's, Woburn Abbey was a name well known to the British public; by the 1960's it was almost as well known abroad. Deer Park and Grounds Woburn's 3,000 acre deer park was landscaped by Humphry Repton in the early 19th century, some of which was used for the Woburn (experimental) Farm, and contains an abundance of wildlife, including nine species of deer.

One of these, the Pere David, descended from the Imperial Herd of China, was saved from extinction at Woburn and is now the largest breeding herd in the world. Majestic oaks, gently landscaped parkland and lakes make this one of the most beautiful of parks. Over 1,000 deer roam here, including the Pere David deer, saved from extinction at Woburn. As you enter the Park you will pass the splendid range of farm buildings, designed by Robert Salmon and Henry Holland, built in 1780. These incorporate the Bedford Estates Office and the Bloomsbury Stud. The famous purple and white colours of the Bloomsbury Stud have been carried with great success on race courses around the world. To the left you will see the Dairy completed in 1900. The Gardens There are 40 acres of pleasure gardens and a Pottery, as well as the 40 shop Antiques Centre which is probably the most unusual such centre outside London, having been designed and built utilising many shop fronts and facades, rescued from demolition sites in various parts of Britain. The gardens at Woburn were also landscaped by Humphry Repton.

His style can be seen in the natural use of the grounds. The gardens contain many rare and champion trees. Woburn is the most fully realised of Repton's projects. A large Red Book was presented to the 6th Duke of Bedford in 1802. Repton proposed a lake, a serpentine river, an American Garden, extensive planting, a bridge, and a Thornery. Today, the garden's character is Victorian. There is a hornbeam maze, herbaceous borders, ponds, a woodland garden and a Chinese diary overlooking a pool. The curved greenhouse is used as a camellia house. "There is a handsome flower-garden here, designed by the present duchess; and near it is the most magnificent sculpture gallery to be found in any private house in England." [Source: Gardeners' Magazine and register of rural and domestic improvement, 1829] The House Woburn Abbey has been home of the Dukes of Bedford for over 300 years and is now lived in by the present Duke's heir, the Marquess of Tavistock and his family, in the Family Rooms.

The house contains one of the most important private collections of furniture, porcelain, silver and paintings, by many famous craftsmen and artists, including Claude, Cuyp, Gainsborough, Murillo, Rembrandt, Reynolds and Deniers to name only a few and in one room of the Private Apartments, the magnificent Venetian Room, there are 21 paintings of Venice by Antonio Canale (Canaletto). There are over 250 paintings to enjoy on the three floors of the House. In the Private Apartments, the Venetian Room is one of the most beautiful dining rooms in the world with 21 pictures of Venice by Canaletto. The paintings were commissioned by the 4th Duke while on The Grand Tour in 1731. Beautiful porcelain from France, Japan, Germany, England and China can be found in the vaults, including the famous Sevres dinner service presented to the 4th Duke of Bedford by Louis XV. Woburn has been home to distinguished visitors in the past, including Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who used a suite of rooms here. Hauntings Woburn Abbey was originally a Cistercian abbey and was rebuilt in the mid-eighteenth century.

It has been the home of the Dukes of Bedford for over 300 years and is reputedly haunted by a number of ghostly forms. The most recent haunting to take place in the Abbey is thought to be the ghost of a young man who was half strangled and later drowned in the lake. Although he cannot be seen, doors open and close for him as he walks through rooms. Witnesses claim that the door handle would turn and then open, as if a person was coming through. In the time it would take for a person to cross the room, the door at the other end would open and close again for this invisible figure. The ghost of a monk is also said to haunt the Abbey and has been seen most often in the crypt - the place where monks were buried. He is thought to be the abbot of Woburn who was hanged when he opposed Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn. The summerhouse is haunted by the Duke's grandmother. She died at the age of 64 when the plane that she was flying mysteriously crashed on the east coast. It is not her ghost that haunts the place but an overwhelming feeling of sadness, as if her unhappy spirit lives on.

The Russell Family History The first ancestor to be identified with certainty is a Stephen Russell of Dorset who in 1394 represented Weymouth in Parliament. Other Russells followed in his footsteps, most notably the Lord Russell who by his death in 1683 gained for his father the title of Duke of Bedford, and the Lord John Russell who in 1832 carried the first great electoral reform Bill through Parliament. It was Stephen Russell's great-great grandson who established the family fortune and became Baron Russell and Earl of Bedford. Having entered royal service in about 1506 John Russell served in the army of Henry VIII in France and was knighted for valour in 1522. He enjoyed the privileged position of a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and was entrusted with many state offices and diplomatic missions. Most of the family estates were granted to him as a reward for these services. From the 1st Earl's time the Russells were sympathetic to the English Reformation; the 2nd Earl quitted England during Mary Tudor's reign and the 4th Earl in 1631 began to build the first new parish church designed for Protestant worship in London.

His son, the 5th Earl, actively supported the Protestant refugees from France. During Charles II�s reign the 5th Earl and his son William, Lord Russell, were among those who by constitutional means sought to exclude the Roman Catholic Duke of York from the succession to the throne. This means failed and in 1683 some of the Whigs sought to achieve their end by force but the plot was discovered and Lord Russell, as leader of the Whigs in the Commons, was executed (the painting shows Lord Russell in gaol). In 1694, expressly in recognition of the family's sacrifice in the cause of the Protestant succession, William III raised Lord Russell's father to be Duke of Bedford and Marquess of Tavistock. In other spheres of public service the Russells have distinguished themselves. The 4th Duke negotiated the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and in the nineteenth century several members of the family entered the diplomatic service and the army. Others have been pioneers or adventurers, such as the 'flying Duchess'. Today the Duke's eldest son, the Marquess of Tavistock lives here with his wife and their three sons.

Bedford, John Russell, 4th duke of b. Sept. 30, 1710 d. Jan. 15, 1771, Woburn leader of the "Bedford Whigs," a major parliamentary force in the third quarter of the 18th century in England. Brother of the 3rd Duke (Wriothesley Russell), he joined the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole and in November 1744 became first lord of the Admiralty in the administration of Henry Pelham. He was subsequently lord privy seal in Lord Bute's Cabinet of 1761. He wanted peace at any cost, was sent to France to negotiate in 1762, and signed the Peace of Paris in 1763. He was lord president of the council in George Grenville's Cabinet in the same year. Bedford was the leader of a political group which bore his name. The Bedford Whigs were a group built up on family connections and electoral influence. Lord Sandwich, Lord Gower, Lord Weymouth, and Richard Rigby were notable Bedfordites.

Because of his failing eyesight, Bedford himself did not hold office after 1765, when the Grenville administration fell, but his party continued to hold office in successive ministries, and it remained a cohesive political group for more than a decade after Bedford's death. Bedford, Francis Russell, 5th duke of b. July 23, 1765 d. March 2, 1802, Woburn eldest son of Francis Russell (d. 1767), marquess of Tavistock, the eldest son of the 4th duke; he succeeded his grandfather as duke of Bedford in 1771. Regarding Charles James Fox as his political leader, he joined the Whigs in the House of Lords and became a member of the circle of the Prince of Wales, afterward George IV. Bedford was greatly interested in agriculture. He established a model farm at Woburn and made experiments in sheep breeding that were recorded by Arthur Young in the Annals of Agriculture (1795). He was a member of the original board of agriculture and was the first president of the Smithfield Club. Bedford, John Robert Russell, 13th duke of b.

May 24, 1917 elder son of the 12th duke (Hastings William Sackville Russell), succeeding to the title in 1953. Faced with paying heavy death duties on his father's estate, including Woburn Abbey, the 13th duke developed to the full the commercial possibilities inherent in opening a "stately home" to the public--adding to the show of magnificent collections of furniture and art treasures a number of popular attractions on the grounds, including the Wild Animal Kingdom, administered by a famous circus family, the Chipperfields. He showed himself to be a resourceful publicist, and both he and Woburn Abbey became well known to the British public and to foreign tourists. He wrote A Silver-Plated Spoon (1959), Book of Snobs (with G. Mikes; 1965), The Flying Duchess (1968), and How To Run a Stately Home (with G. Mikes; 1971).

Duke of Bedford, 85, Dies; Opened Up Home - The New York Times The New York Times World |Duke of Bedford, 85, Dies; Opened Up Home Search Duke of Bedford, 85, Dies; Opened Up Home By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Continue reading the main story The 13th Duke of Bedford, who turned his ancient seat, Woburn Abbey, into a tourist attraction -- complete with amusement park and safari park -- to keep it in his family, died on Friday in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 85. Born John Robert Russell, he faced heavy taxes after the deaths of his father and grandfather. He overcame his innate shyness to promote Woburn Abbey, north of London, and was one of the first members of the British aristocracy to capitalize on the historic value of his home. The abbey and its 16,000-acre estate, once the site of a Cistercian abbey, had belonged to the Russell family since King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in the 16th century. But by the time the duke inherited it in 1953, it was almost derelict.

To the horror of some aristocrats, the duke installed an amusement park, souvenir shop and safari park and offered paying guests the opportunity to have dinner with the family. He even allowed a nudist film to be shot on the grounds. ''I do not relish the scorn of the peerage, but it is better to be looked down on than overlooked,'' he once remarked. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The gambit allowed the family to keep and restore the house, which now receives more than 1.5 million visitors a year. The duke once mused that his family ''thought themselves slightly grander than God.'' His grandfather, known as Spinach, was a colorful character but not given to generosity; the duke once recalled that he had to eat chocolates that had been put out for the family parrots. For many years, the duke was unaware that he was to inherit a title. ''I remember reading in the newspaper of the Duchess of Bedford breaking the record for a flight to South Africa,'' he recalled.

''I said to a maid who was working in our house, 'That sounds a very brave woman.' ''She said: 'Don't you know, that's your grandmother?' That was the first time I had ever heard of the dukes and duchesses of Bedford.'' Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy He was tutored at home and did not go to college. At age 18, as he studied in London in an attempt to get into college, his father gave him a small annual allowance. Friends bought him an overcoat after finding he did not own one. In 1939, Spinach Russell disinherited his grandson because he disapproved of his marriage to a divorced woman, Clare Hollway. She died in 1945, and grandfather and grandson later reconciled. The duke signed up with the Coldstream Guards in World War II, but suffered poor health and was soon discharged, going to work as a reporter on The Sunday Express newspaper. He later took his family to live in South Africa, but returned after inheriting the title.

With his second wife, Lydia, he set about restoring Woburn. The couple cleaned many of their possessions themselves, including an 800-piece Sèvres porcelain dinner service presented to the wife of the fourth duke by King Louis XV of France. Trustees sold part of the estate to meet millions of pounds in death duties, but the duke resisted their requests to sell Woburn itself. Advertisement Continue reading the main story ''I have learned the most important lesson of my life from opening Woburn,'' he recalled. ''It is that the pleasure you give to other people is the most rewarding thing in the world. I regard it as the main purpose of my life, to keep Woburn Abbey for my family, and I am convinced that my way is the best way of doing this.'' He married his third wife, Nicole, in 1960, and in 1974 handed over the running of the estate to his eldest son, (Henry) Robin Ian Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, and the couple moved abroad.

He is survived by his wife, his son Robin, and another son, Lord Rudolf Russell, from his first marriage, and Lord Francis Russell, the son from his second marriage. Obituary: The Duke of Bedford | News | The Guardian The Duke of Bedford Unconventional aristocrat who turned Woburn Abbey, the inheritance of his loveless family, into a popular tourist attraction The Duke of Bedford Unconventional aristocrat who turned Woburn Abbey, the inheritance of his loveless family, into a popular tourist attraction Monday 28 October 2002 21.18 EST First published on Monday 28 October 2002 21.18 EST Share on Messenger Close Seldom, from the inside, can the real - as opposed to the idealised - lives of the British aristocracy have been regarded with such bleakly astute realism as by John Robert Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford, who has died aged 85. After the second world war, he revived the unoccupied and decrepit family seat at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, opening it to the publlic with numerous tourist attractions.

Then he left it for a nomadic life of flats and villas centred on Monte Carlo. Except in physique - he was tall and angularly thin - Russell was singularly unsuited to his station in life. Intelligent and cultivated, he had no interest in hunting, shooting or fishing, had little use for either of his parents, found his grandfather, the 11th duke, impenetrable, and, as a young man, was more at home in the vigorously and transatlantically unconventional milieu of Lady Cunard in London. He was well into his teens before he even saw the Inigo Jones-influenced Woburn Abbey, one of the most beautiful of the great British houses. "I was kept away from school and other children, and then more or less abandoned in a Bloomsbury students' hostel with £98 a year while my parents' marriage broke up," he wrote after his success had enhanced the courage of his own convictions about his family. "My father disinherited me when I chose to marry the woman I loved." That marriage, to Clare Hollway, took place in 1939.

Members of the Russell family had always been notorious for the invincible sense of their own rightness, however eccentric some of their views may have appeared to the despised outside world. John's grandfather, living virtually without benefit of human society in the then crumbling Woburn, did not even speak to his own son for 20 years. Unsurprisingly, the 12th duke was hardly any better as a father, preferring to work for Christian and pacifist causes during the first world war, and deluging young John with moral exhortations to do good works - without explaining how he could do so on the pittance he was allowed. The boy regarded his father as a hypocrite and, in one of their rows by correspondence, informed him: "Underneath your Christian cloak lies a small, narrow, mean mind, incapable of forgiveness, generosity or feeling." He thought his mother a bit "cracked". Even good intentions turned sour in the Sussex mansion, near Rye, in which Russell was brought up, and which he hated - partly because his parents were unhappy in it, and partly because (as his family nature did not cause him unduly to emphasise) it was not nearly grand enough for his tastes.

Because his father had been sent to Eton and loathed it, he arranged for John to have private tutors, which the boy disliked intensely, feeling isolated. Neither was he told anything about his family history, or his own expectations. He did not know that the famous "flying duchess" who appeared in the newspapers for undertaking long flights, some solo, was his grandmother until a parlourmaid let it slip - to the great displeasure of her employers. His first sight of Woburn was when he was driven there by his formidable, and deaf, grandmother. The petrifying fear of the fast ride was soon overlaid by the "awful sombre chill" of the house itself. His nanny, Didi Parsons, was the only person John remembered as having shown him affection. His tutor, the Rev Cecil Squire, whose arrival was the signal for the nanny's departure, made his life "hell". Taught boxing by an old army sergeant, he could easily have beaten the boys from a local private school who regularly bullied him - but he hated hurting people.

Deposited in Bloomsbury at the age of 19, he was willingly led astray from his education by the recherché charms of Lady Cunard and the Duchess of Rutland's parties. At this point, with war against Germany approaching, John fell in love with a wealthy German countess considerably older than himself, and was, predictably, dropped by his father and from respectable visiting lists. With inherited consciousness of his own rightness, the young man wrote to his cousin, Marjorie Russell: "My father is a notorious eccentric and is a complete failure, so his words are beneath consideration." The 12th duke promptly cut his son off without even the proverbial shilling, and a correspondence developed in which John claimed he was being treated like a half-witted child, while his father protested that he was being cruel only to make the boy see the error of his ways. Thus, after illness put an end to his brief war service with the Coldstream Guards (1939-40), the future 13th duke found himself obliged to work, first as an estate agent, and then, at the invitation of Lord Beaverbrook, as a journalist on the Sunday Express.

Before long, he had two sons, and his first wife had killed herself, in front of him in 1945, with sodium amytal tablets. Eventually, he announced his engagement to Lydia Lyle, who, in 1947, became his second wife, and, in order to separate himself even further from his ancestors, gratified his father by emigrating to South Africa as a fruit farmer. If the 12th duke had not been found dead with a shotgun in mysterious circumstances in 1953, John might have stayed there, despite his growing dislike of the way black people were treated. Ironically, it was Woburn, and the Herculean task of restoring it, that gave a centre to his life, even though his efforts were overshadowed by the limitations of the trust that the family had put in place. He had to get the trust's agreement for even trifling capital expenditure. The Woburn estate was valued at £802,252, and the settled lands at £7,800,000. There was a tax debt of £4,500,000.

The riding school block and the tennis courts had disappeared; so had the fronts of two wings of the great house itself. The interior was cold and desolate. Furniture was piled on top of other furniture, some of it damaged. Not knowing what to do, John retreated to South Africa, only to be told bluntly by Lord Beaverbrook that he was now a duke and should get on with being one. This he did with a will, despite the trustees' doubts about opening Woburn to the public. Very few great houses were accessible at that time, and many of them regarded the paying public as vulgar nuisances, to be got rid of as quickly as possible once they had paid their entrance fees. But the new duke's experiences as an unhappy aristocrat and a happy journalist helped: neither a prisoner of snobbery, nor a despiser of publicity, he determined that the public would be made to feel welcome. Employing the butler as navvy and furniture mover, and doing a lot of the scrubbing and restoration work himself, he opened Woburn in April 1955, with a children's zoo, a playground with seesaws and swings, a boating lake and a tearoom.

There were 181,000 visitors in the first season, a figure that stunned the trustees. More lavatories were added after a man had a heart attack while waiting. There were scooter and traction engine rallies, and expresso coffee machines and a juke box in the milk bar - all highly modish at the time. The 13th duke appeared on Hughie Green's distinctly downmarket television show. "I have been accused of being undignified," he wrote. "I am. If you take your dignity to a pawnbroker, he won't give you much for it." The press loved him: he knew what they were after, which, in those days, were broad, human-interest stories rather than tales of narrow sleaze. They loved his cool manner, his French third wife Nicole Milinaire (whom he married in 1960), his willingness to preside on a stand at the ideal home exhibition, or have his chauffeur drive sight-seeing journalists around the estate in his Rolls Royce. It helped him compete, he would quip, with his motor museum rival, Lord Montagu.

When the duke and his second wife divorced, he had gone to a psychiatrist, who told him professionally what Beaverbrook had told him as a patron: concentrate on the job in hand rather than your own misery. Even so, eventually Russell realised that only 15% of the visitors came to Woburn out of genuine interest, compared to the 30% who said it was just somewhere to go with their new car or motorbike. After 20 years of battle, and with the furniture and art valued at £15m - against the £250,000 at his father's succession - John handed over to his son, the Marquess of Tavistock, though not without some resentment from his daughter-in-law, who saw his action as "selfish". The Russell curse of exaggerated misunderstanding had struck again: the duke's real motive, as he saw it, had been to give the marquess the experience of the house and estate he himself had lacked prior to suddenly being forced to assume embattled control. The rest of the duke's life was spent in houses or flats in Monte Carlo, at his property in Portugal, or in the homes of friends.

Thinking the hereditary system imperfect, he was a stranger to the House of Lords: "One should have some elected qualifications," he said. The sentiment was characteristically modern; the style thoroughly ducal. He leaves his third wife, the two sons of his first marriage and the son of his second marriage. · John Robert Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford, born May 24 1917; died October 25 2002 Woburn Abbey - Wikidata English Woburn Abbey occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford Statements Cite this page This page was last modified on 3 August 2016, at 21:37. All structured data from the main and property namespace is available under the Creative Commons CC0 License ; text in the other namespaces is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

The Duke of Bedford - Telegraph The Duke of Bedford 12:01AM BST 14 Jun 2003 The 14th Duke of Bedford, who died yesterday aged 63, was a successful stockbroker in the City and the devoted custodian of Woburn Abbey, the family's 13,000-acre estate in Bedfordshire. For most of his life known by his title, the Marquess of Tavistock (he succeeded to the dukedom on the death of his father only last October), he took over the running of Woburn from the 13th Duke in 1974. His father, though suffering from the hereditary Russell shyness, had forced himself to face the glare of publicity as a pioneer of stately home showmanship in order to save Woburn. Had he not done so, the family seat - the great 18th-century house built on the foundations of the old monastery granted to the Russells by Henry VIII - would have had to be sold to pay tax of some £5 million incurred on the death of the 12th Duke in 1953.

If anything, Robin Tavistock was even more afflicted with shyness than his father. But it would have been foolish to underestimate this shrewd and dedicated man, who for more than 10 years divided his time between directorships in the City and running, together with his wife, Henrietta, the large leisure complex at Woburn, with its safari park, 40-shop antique centre, golf course (developed by Tavistock himself) and other attractions. Initially reluctant to take on the vast responsibility of the Woburn "circus" - and weary of the endless questions as to the whereabouts of the nudists (notoriously introduced into the grounds by his father in the 1950s) - Tavistock grew to be a devoted custodian of the estate. Related Articles Lord Ashcombe 25 Dec 2013 One of his achievements was to save from extinction the Pere David deer, descended from the Imperial Herd of China.

Woburn now boasts the largest breeding herd of this species in the world, and in 1985 Lord Tavistock presented 22 Pere Davids to the People's Republic of China, with the hope that the species might become re-established in its natural habitat. Among the numerous events which Lord Tavistock put on to generate much-needed income for the maintenance of Woburn was a memorable open-air pop concert by Neil Diamond in 1977. The occasion was attended by 56,000 people. In 1999 the Tavistocks became well known to television viewers when they appeared in Country House, a 12-part documentary series on BBC 2 about life at Woburn Abbey. Henry Robin Ian Russell had the unusual distinction of being born at the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly.

At the time of his birth, January 21 1940, his parents (then Lord and Lady Howland) were staying at the hotel in a suite provided for them by the baby's great-grandfather, the 11th Duke of Bedford, an eccentric recluse who lived in lonely grandeur at Woburn following the disappearance of his wife, "the Flying Duchess", over the North Sea. Robin's childhood, if materially secure, was deficient in other respects. He never had a birthday party, and his mother would strike his legs with a stick when he did not walk upstairs properly. (She died when he was only five.) His father succeeded as the 13th Duke in 1953, Robin becoming the Marquess of Tavistock. He was educated at Le Rosey, Switzerland, and at Harvard University, where he studied economics, before beginning work as a stockbroker in the City. Here Tavistock proved both hard-working and extremely shrewd. Several young entrepreneurs whom he backed made their fortunes; and only last Thursday it was revealed that he had made £7.2 million from the takeover of a property firm in which he had invested.

From 1970 to 1982 he was a partner with De Zoete and Bevan, and from 1977 to 1982 chairman of Cedar Investment Trust. From 1977 to 1988 he was a director of Touche Remnant Holdings. He was also chairman of Berkeley Development Capital (1984-92) and of TR Property Investment Trust (1982-89). He was chairman of the Trustees of the Kennedy Memorial Trust from 1985 to 1990, and a founding member, in 1973, of the Historic Houses' Association. Given that he had been born there, it was a happy coincidence that he was later closely associated with the Ritz as a director (1977-91) of the hotel's parent company, Trafalgar House. In 1988 Tavistock, whose stated ambition was to be "a good duke", suffered a severe stroke which left him, in his own words, "95 per cent dead". He could not walk or feed himself; he was virtually unable to speak.

Eventually he recovered, in the process undergoing what many described as a change of personality. Before his stroke, Tavistock had been a driven, often difficult, individual who could be remote from his family. "I used to lose my temper all the time," he said in 1996. "I would deliberately be difficult because I wanted people to be frightened of me. That way I thought they would respect me. . . Now my attitude to life has totally changed. I am much easier to get along with and never lose my temper." After his recovery, Lord and Lady Tavistock set up the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia, Tavistock donating £250,000 to the project. A well-known personality on the Turf, Tavistock was a member of the Jockey Club, and a director of United Racecourses from 1977 to 1994.

In 1961 he had married Henrietta Tiarks, daughter of the banker Henry Tiarks and one of the best known debutantes of the 1950s, and he supported his wife's keen interest in bloodstock; they had a number of brood mares at their Bloomsbury Stud at Woburn, and in Kentucky. They also established a successful stud in New Zealand. Among the best known racehorses they bred and owned were Pushy, Precocious (winner of the Norfolk and Gimcrack Stakes) and Jupiter Island (Hardwicke Stakes and the Prix de Conseil de Paris). The Duke was a loyal friend and a man of considerable charm and style. He was an elegant dresser who never wore the same pair of shoes twice in the month. He is survived by his wife and their three sons, the eldest of whom, Andrew Ian Henry Russell, born in 1962, succeeds to the dukedom; last year he took over the running of Woburn from his father.

Question: Woburn Abbey is the family seat of which duke?
Answer: BEDFORD