Wrest Park, Luton, England

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

Wrest Park has extensive and complex formal pleasure grounds and parkland around a country mansion. Its main phases are early 18th century and early 19th century, utilising a late 17th-century base, with mid-18th-century work by Lancelot Brown.

NOTE This entry is a summary. Because of the complexity of this site, the standard Register Entry format would convey neither an adequate description nor a satisfactory account of the development of the landscape. The user is advised to consult the references given below for more detailed accounts. Many Listed Buildings exist within the site, not all of which have been here referred to. Descriptions of these are to be found in the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest produced by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

Wrest Park lies 14 kilometres south of Bedford, on the eastern edge of the village of Silsoe, on the Greensand Ridge of low hills. The 380 hectare site is bounded to the west by Silsoe and the old route of the A6 Bedford to London road and on the other sides largely by agricultural land, parts of the boundary being marked by a stone wall. The late 20th century A6 Silsoe by-pass cuts through the west edge of the park, set in a cutting to the north and on a low embankment to the south. The park and garden are largely level, except for the rise to the east which includes Kempson's Park and Cain Hill. The site offers views of the villages of Upper and Lower Gravenhurst from the higher ground to the east and the east drive, together with views of the low hills to north and south.

REFERENCES

Note: There is a wealth of material about this site. Key references are cited below.

Country Life, 16 (9 July 1904), pp 54-64; (16 July 1904), pp 90-8; 18 (2 December 1905), pp 772-3; 36 (4 August 1914), pp 112-14; 155 (17 January 1974), pp 78-81

The Walpole Society XVI, (1927-8), pp 70-1

M Batey and D Lambert, The English Garden Tour (1990), pp 110-13

Wrest Park, guidebook, (English Heritage 1995)

J Collett-White (ed), Inventories of Bedfordshire Country Houses, 1714-1830, (Bedfordshire Historical Record Society 1995), pp 243-51

Journal of Garden History 15, no 3 (autumn 1995), pp 149-78

Maps

Rest Park in Bedfordshire, 1719 (Bedfordshire Record Office)

Wrest Park, John Rocque, 1735 (Bedfordshire Record Office)

Wrest Park, John Rocque, 1737 (Bedfordshire Record Office)

T Jefferys, The County of Bedford, 1765

Map of several parishes of Silsoe, 1814 (Bedfordshire Record Office)

A Bryant, Map of the County of Bedford, 1826

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: May 1999