Battlesden
Battlesden House

Places > Battlesden > Historic Houses

In the 1860s an Elizabethan Manor House was demolished and Battlesden House, a huge Gothic chateau style house built in its place.  The house had 40 rooms and a large ballroom and cost 40,000 to build. Sir Joseph Paxton laid out the grounds and constructed the lake. The owner, Sir Edward Page-Turner did not like the house and never lived there. Instead he leased the house to a wealthy coal owner David Bromilow who went to Leicestershire in 1878.

In 1885 the Duke of Bedford bought the house and demolished it. One of the reason put forward at the time for his action was that he did not like the idea of another stately home so close to Woburn Abbey. All that now remains are two gatehouses, the former stable block and the old laundry which was a separate building and has now been converted into a separate house..

The stable block was used as a hospital for soldiers during the First World War and a maternity home during the Second World War.

Sources:

• The Newspaper Cuttings Collection, Local Studies Library, Bedford Central Library

Battlesden House, by Bedfordshire Libraries, 2012

Page last updated: 21st January 2014