Bloomsbury Stud Stables and Adjoining Buildings Forming South East Part of Park Farm Complex

Stables and adjoining buildings, dating from 1795 (completed 1797), form the southeastern part of Park Farm. Designed by Robert Salmon, the estate's resident architect and 'mechanist', for Francis, 5th Duke of Bedford, this model farm was intended to showcase new agricultural technology and served as the venue for the annual Woburn Sheep Shearing. The buildings are constructed of red brick, with main elevations in coursed ironstone, and have shallow-pitched slate roofs. The main block is a long, low structure, approximately 50 metres long, continuing the line of a related building. Various blocks adjoin to the rear (south). The architecture is in a Rustic Neo-classical style. The north (front) elevation features a symmetrical arrangement with a two-story central gable linked to two single-story outer gables by single-story ranges. The gables project slightly. The central gable has a broad, central recess with a semi-circular arch springing from first-floor level. An impost string course, matching the eaves cornices of the flanking ranges, runs across the central recess. The recess originally contained a plank door with sidelights, the latter being casements with ornamental geometric glazing bars dating to around 1830. The first floor incorporates a two-light casement within the arch, topped by a clockface. A timber, pyramidal-roofed bell-cote crowns the roof. The flanking single-story ranges and outer gables formerly had doors and windows similar to those in the central gable recess, but these are now replaced by 20th-century double stable doors. Deep eaves and verges feature moulded timber cornices. The 5th Duke was keenly interested in estate management and agricultural innovation, as documented in the Bedfordshire Record Office archives (R Box 818 bundle 18/19 ff, elevations of stables, n.d.) and further explored in J M Robinson’s 1976 Architectural Review article, “Farming on a Princely Scale."