Battlesden Park, Leighton Buzzard, England

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

An 18th/19th century landscape park surrounding the site of a country house, with the remains of formal terraced gardens; various works to the park and garden were possibly carried out by Humphry Repton and Joseph Paxton.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Battlesden Park lies 2 kilometres south-west of the village of Milton Bryant, and 5 kilometres north-east of Leighton Buzzard. The park (about 90 hectares) is bounded largely by agricultural land, with the south-west boundary formed by the A5 Watling Street. The site of the house lies on the southern tip of a shoulder of land extending 1 kilometre south from the A4012, with the park surrounding it, the ground sloping down to a valley to the west and south in which lie two lakes. The setting is largely agricultural, with the village of Potsgrove adjacent to the north-west, the settlement of Battlesden 1 kilometre to the east, and the extensive parkland of Woburn Abbey lying close to Milton Lodge to the north.

REFERENCES

The Victoria History of the County of Bedfordshire 3, (1912), p 343

G Carter, P Goode and K Laurie, Humphry Repton (1982), p 147

L Fleming and A Gore, The English Garden (1979), pl 107

Maps

T Jefferys, 'The County of Bedford', 1765

A Bryant, 'Map of the County of Bedford', 1826

Tithe map for Battlesden parish, 1845 (Bedfordshire Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1881

2nd edition published 1901

3rd edition published 1926

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1880

Description written: September 1997

Amended: April 1999

Edited: April 1999