History

Woburn Farm

Woburn Farm once formed part of the estate of Chertsey Abbey, founded in the 7th. Century by the Bishop of London.

Adam de Woburn lived on the site in 1260 and the Petre Family in 1676 [2].

Woburn, meaning 'crooked stream', was perhaps a reference to The Bourne which forms the northern boundary of the site.

Philip Southcote (c 1697/8-1758) bought Woburn (or Wooburn) Farm, alias Cocks Lands, from a Mrs Hornby c 1735.
As a Catholic, Southcote was required to live more than ten miles from the City of London.

The area is now a grade II listed park/garden (#1000342). Some of the text here is reproduced from that listing.

Seat of Philip Southcote

In c1748 Southcote commissioned William Kent to design a new house to replace the existing gentleman's residence at Woburn.

The new house (now part of St. George’s College) was a square, two-storey building.

The land at Woburn was not particularly scenic but Southcote was able to create a working landscape that was also picturesque. Southcote aimed to hide the boundaries so that the extent of the relatively modest 47ha site (later enlarged to c 60ha) was not obvious, and used a broad perimeter circuit walk to give access to all parts of the grounds. There were views to St Anne's Hill and Windsor Castle.

Joseph Spence, a clergyman and Professor at Oxford University recorded conversations with Southcote and attributes the invention of the ferme ornée to Southcote (Symes 1988).

Woburn was much admired by contemporaries, who referred to it as Southcote's Paradise (ibid). They were impressed not only by the planting, which included the extensive use of flowers, and the scattering of temples, but also the atmosphere of a peaceful, rural life.

Very little remains today of the landscape laid out by Southcote in the mid C18. Whately (1771) noted that the site covered c 150 acres (c 60ha), of which 35 acres (c 14ha), 'are adorned to the highest degree'; of the remainder, some two thirds was pasture and the rest in tillage.

The original, C18 entrance to Woburn Farm.

A bellmouth of 1.5m high stucco walls and two pillars surmounted by urns.

Woburn Park

Following Southcote's death in 1758, the estate was maintained by his second wife and continued to be visited by travellers, several of whom wrote accounts of the experience.

Mrs Southcote died in 1783, leaving the estate to Lord Petre's son. It was leased out, but still of interest as Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) recorded in his Memorandums Made on a Tour to some of the Gardens in England (1786).

In 1765 John Cree setup nurseries at Woburn Farm. John Cree was a gardener and nurseryman who had previously worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. He travelled to Carolina and it's thought he brought back the first specimens of the American blueberry to the country. [8]

In 1814, the estate was sold to Charles Stirling, Vice Admiral of the White, who owned the estate, now known as Woburn Park, until 1834.

It was bought then by Louisa Locke King after the death of her Husband in 1833. She did this so her elder son, who inherited his father’s title, could remain with his family in the family seat at Ockham. She moved with her second son, Peter John Locke King, into Woburn Park and enlarged the original mansion.

Peter John married in 1836 and in 1861/2 built a new house for his large family in Weybridge on part of his Brooklands estate, which he had inherited. That house was called Brooklands House, and today is part of Brooklands College. [10]

Peter John’s son, Hugh, went on to build the Brooklands motor racing circuit, the world's first.

Photo: A surviving section of the Brooklands circuit, showing the Home Banking.

Earl of Kilmorey

Louisa Locke King sold Woburn Park in 1862 to the Earl of Kilmorey.

The Earl made substantial alterations to the Woburn Park building.He had an ornamental parapet added and had building rendered in cement - covering the original yellow brickwork.

St. George's College

In 1884 the estate passed back into the hands of the Petre family when Monsignor William Petre, twelfth baron, moved St George's College, founded by the Josephite Community in Croydon in 1869, to the site.

The eastern two thirds of the original Woburn Farm site is today occupied by an extensive range of school buildings and sports pitches that were once Southcote’s fields.

Near the north-east corner of the site a drain flows into the stream, crossed by a brick bridge which was part of Southcote's circuit around the farm.

Woburn Park Farm

In the C19 the kitchen garden was moved to the western boundary of the site; this is now used as a trailer park for movie making and is known as Woburn Park Farm (the Traylens site).

The stream on the north-west boundary has the remains of bridges and artificial stonework along its banks (early C20). At its northern end where it joins The Bourne a bridge gives a vantage point across the Meads towards the Thames.

East of the stream and north of the walled enclosure, the ground which was formerly (mid C20) Brackendene Caravan Site has been remodelled (late C20) to create a BMX track.

Residential Properties

By 1897 the north-west centre part of the site contained three large residential properties:

These properties have since been subdivided and some redevelopment has taken place.

Around this time, Woburn Chase was owned by Arthur Rathbone Cobbett, an Italian merchant. [13]

Cobbett died in 1906. Sometime after that the site appears to have fallen into disuse as a residence - being referred to in a 1938 Pathe report as a “brick dump”.


St. Mary of the Angels

In 1938, a choir school was built on the Woburn Chase site.

Run by Fr Desmond, it was called St Mary of the Angels Song School.

This video shows pupils at the school marking the move to Addlestone with a ‘Beating the Bounds’ ceremony.

The school remained here until they were forced to relocate after their property burned down. [14]

Art of Movement Studio

In July 1953 the Art of Movement Studio (now the Faculty of Dance, Trinity Laban) moved here Manchester. The site had been purchased for Laban and Lisa Ullmann by William Elmhirst, son of the wealthy philanthropists Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst, £15,000. [15]

The dance school left the site in 1976, moving to a new studio in Laurie Grove, New Cross, London.

The main house at the the Art of Movement Studio, 1958.

Martin Grant Homes

A Management Company purchased the site in the 1970’s and the greenhouses were erected and the vine planted.

An arson attack which took place in the late 1980’s left the site in dilapidation.

Martin Grant Homes purchased the 12 acres and by 1991 built what we know today as Woburn Hill Park - a residential development consisting of three blocks, Jasmine, Japonica & Jacaranda.Jasmine and Japonica are built on the footings of the old building, whilst the garages as you enter the development were initially stables.

However, with the housing markets dropping as each building was constructed (1989-1991), MGH did little development of the garden except for clearing and stocking the triple ponds with Koi, which were a banquet for the local heron but at least helped to sell the first phase. [18]