Head Cowman'S House, Immediately South Of Park Farm Complex

SP 9433-9533 WOBURN WOBURN PARK 8/191 Head Cowman's House, immediately S of Park Farm complex GV II Bedford Estate cottage. Probably erected c.1850 by the 7th Duke. Yellow brick with ashlar dressings. Clay tiled roofs. 2 storeyed asymmetrical plan. Loosely Tudor in style. E elevation: pair of projecting gables to LH, each with 3-light window to ground floor and 2-light window to first floor. These are mullioned, with cast iron lattice casements and are surmounted by moulded dripstones. Gabled porch within angle at junction with RH block. Cambered archway. Part glazed door. Dentil eaves cornice. Stone coped gables with Kneelers and moulded finials. Chimney stacks between 2 gables and to ridge of RH block. Paired diagonal shafts with linked moulded caps. Although having picturesque details this cottage belongs to the more utilitarian phase of Bedford Estate building begun in the late 1840's (and ending with World War I, by which time about 500 cottages had been built in the locality). 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 workers' dwellings is remarkably high. Both the form and the decorative details are similar to designs in the 7th Duke's Plans and Elevations. The greater use of ornament is probably related to the siting of the house near to the Park Farm complex in Woburn Park. 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 System of building Labourers' cottages pursued on the estates of His Grace the] Duke of Bedford, n.d. but probably 1849.

Listing NGR: SP9596933191