Moggerhanger
Moggerhanger Park House
Moggerhanger > Historic Buildings
Moggerhanger Park was built for Godfrey Thornton, the Governor of the Bank of England, by Sir John Soane RA between 1790 and 1816. Among Sir John's previous work was the Bank of England, Dulwich College and the redesign of 10 and 11 Downing Street. Moggerhanger Park is the most complete surviving example of his work. The House is a Grade 1 listed building and the 200 acres of grounds are Grade II listed in the English Heritage's Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.
The house was described by Humphry Repton in the 1790s as follows; "it is too large and too much ornamental for a farm house, while it is too small and too humble for a family country seat, and its distance from the capital is too great to permit its being called a villa. I shall therefore consider it as an occasional sporting-seat."
The estate passed through a number of different owners until 1919 when it was acquired by Bedfordshire County Council as a TB Sanatorium; at this time the house was called Park Hospital. The hospital closed in 1987 and was sold to a building company.
In 1995 the estate was acquired by the Moggerhanger House Preservation Trust for use as a centre for church ministry.
The house and grounds re-opened as a Christian Conference and Training Centre in 2004.
Sources:
- Leaflets and pamphlets in Bedford Central Library Local Studies collection
Further Reading:
- A Bedfordshire sketch-book LXXX Moggerhanger by Bernard West in the Bedfordshire Magazine Vol. 12 pp. 193-4
- Moggerhanger 1777-1977 by Horatio Brown
- Moggerhanger Park by James Boutwood in the Bedfordshire Magazine Vol. 5 pp. 249-52
- Moggerhanger Park web site
http://www.the-park.net/moggerhangerpark/
Moggerhanger Park House by Bedfordshire Libraries, 2005
Page last updated: 19th May 2014