Woburn, Bedfordshire Woburn, Bedfordshire Woburn () meaning twisted or crooked stream) is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England. It is situated about southeast of the centre of Milton Keynes, and about south of junction 13 of the M1 motorway and is a tourist attraction. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 933. Woburn was first recorded as a hamlet in 969 and is found in the Domesday Book of 1086. It is best known as the location of Woburn Abbey (a stately home), founded by Cistercian monks in 1145 and granted to the first Earl of Bedford in
Woburn Abbey 1145. Taken from its monastic residents by Henry VIII and given to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, in 1547, it became the seat of the Russell family and the Dukes of Bedford. The Abbey was largely rebuilt starting in 1744 by the architects Henry Flitcroft and Henry Holland for the 4th Duke. Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, originated the afternoon tea ritual in 19th-century England. In April 1786 John Adams (the future second President of the United States on tour with Thomas Jefferson—who would serve as his vice-president before becoming President himself) visited Woburn Abbey and other notable houses