Putteridge Bury, Luton, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.  

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

In about 1788 John Sowerby of Hatton Garden bought Putteridge and Lilley. The house burned down in 1808, and was rebuilt on its current site in Regency style. The landscape park was laid out in about 1820 when it was bounded on the south side by a public road connecting Stoppesley with Offley (which survives as a bridleway). By 1884 (Ordnance Survey) the park had been extended southwards to its present limits. Members of the Sowerby family were renowned naturalists and horticulturists. By the late 19th century (Ordnance Survey) the house and adjacent kitchen gardens were surrounded by largely informal gardens and pleasure grounds, in turn enclosed by a landscape park. The 1808 house was rebuilt by Thomas Clutterbuck between 1908 and 1911, who shortly before had bought the estate from the Sowerbys. Clutterbuck employed the architects Ernest George and Alfred Yeates to design an Elizabethan-style house and engaged Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) and Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) to remodel parts of the garden.

On Clutterbuck's death in 1919 the house was acquired by Sir Felix Cassel, and during the 1920s was frequently visited by George V and Queen Mary with the Prince of Wales. In 1954 the house was occupied by British Celanese and acquired by Luton Corporation in 1965, who converted it into a college of further education. The garden was largely restored to its Lutyens and Jekyll structure in the early 1990s. The house remains (1999) in use as a higher education and conference centre, while the park is in divided ownership.