Park Farm Cottages

PARK FARM COTTAGES, 3 AND 4

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1114022
Date first listed:
16-Mar-1987
List Entry Name:
Park Farm Cottages
Statutory Address:
PARK FARM COTTAGES, 3 AND 4
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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1114022
Date first listed:
16-Mar-1987
List Entry Name:
Park Farm Cottages
Statutory Address 1:
PARK FARM COTTAGES, 3 AND 4

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
PARK FARM COTTAGES, 3 AND 4

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
Central Bedfordshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:
Woburn
National Grid Reference:
SP 95752 33296

Details

SP 9433-9533 WOBURN WOBURN PARK 8/189 Nos. 3 and 4 Park Farm Cottages GV II Pair of Bedford estate cottages. Probably erected by the 7th Duke in the later 1840's. Red brick with ashlar dressings. C20 tile roofs. Asymmetrical plan, one storey and attics. Picturesque Tudor style. 2 and 3-light mullioned windows, with cast iron lattice casements and moulded dripstones. W and E elevations have gabled porches with moulded 4-centred arches and stone coped gables with finials. Ashlar quoins to all angles. Variety of chimney stacks, one projecting from N elevation, others to ridges. Paired diagonal shafts with moulded bases and caps. Dentil cornices to eaves. Although Picturesque in detail, these cottages also belong to the 'utilitarian' phase of Bedford Estate building begun in the late 1840's (and ending with World War I, by which time approximately 500 cottages had been built in the area). The 7th Duke had been one of the first to recognise the advantages of housing agricultural labourers in dwellings which were comfortable and practical rather than purely ornamental, and the constructional quality of these early buildings is remarkably high. The ornamental detailing may be partly due to the siting of the building within Woburn Park near the Park Farm complex, and has similarities with that in plan 7 of the 7th Duke's Plans and Elevations). The (7th) Duke of Bedford: Plans and Elevations of cottages for Agricultural Labourers, London 1850 (reprint of letter and plans sent 1849 to Earl of Chichester, President of Royal Agricultural Society); the (11th) Duke of Bedford: A Great Agricultural Estate, being the story of the Origin and Administration of Woburn and Thorney, London 1897; Rev C H Hartshorne: The systen of building Labourers' cottages pursued on the estates of His Grace the] Duke of Bedford, n.d. but probably 1849.

Listing NGR: SP9575233296

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
38285
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hartshorne, Reverend C H, The System of Building Labourers Cottages pursued on the Estates of his Grace the Duke of Bedford, (1849)
The 11th Duke of Bedford, , A Great Agricultural Estate being the Story of the Origin and Administration of Woburn and Thorney, (1897)

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 2 Bedfordshire,
The 7th Duke of Bedford, Plans and Elevations of Cottages for Agricultural Labourers, (1850)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Park Farm Cottages

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 21-Jun-2026 at 20:28:11.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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