North East Block Of Bloomsbury Stud, Formerly Sheep Shearing House In Park Farm Complex

SP 93 SE WOBURN WOBURN PARK 3/187 NE block of Bloomsbury 23.1.61 Stud, formerly Sheep Shearing House in Park Farm Complex GV II Former sheep shearing house belonging to Park Farm, the model farm designed 1795 (completed 1797) by Robert Salmon, resident architect and 'mechanist' to the estate, for Francis 5th Duke of Bedford. Reworked c.1826 by William Root. Mottled brick with slate roofs. Single-storeyed principal block is long and rectangular with main elevation facing W. Projecting block and walled yard to rear. Rustic Neo-classical style. W elevation: symmetrical. Central projecting pediment on 4 freestanding Tuscan columns forms a broad portico. Portico shelters central 4-light window, panelled door with glazed top panels to LH, and 2-light window to RH replacing another doorway. Pediment contains round-arched window. Flanking wings each have 3 2-light windows and semi- circular ends. Windows are C20 replacements with plain glazing bars, the earlier ones having ornamental geometric glazing-bars. Brick ridge stacks to LH wing and to pediment block. Deep eaves and verges with moulded timber cornices. The 5th Duke was deeply interested in estate management and agricultural developments and Park Farm was intended as a place to demonstrate new agricultural technology. The sheep shearing house can be seen in its original form in George Garrard's depiction of the annual Woburn Sheep Shearing (painting of 1804, engraved 1811). Bedfordshire Record Office: R Box 818 bundle 18/23, plans and elevations of "present and proposed" Sheep Shearing House, signed William Root, dated August 1826; J M Robinson, "Farming ona Princely Scale: Estate buildings of the 5th and 6th Dukes of Bedford at Woburn 1787-1839", Architectural Review November 1976, pp 276-279.

Listing NGR: SP9601233271