Woburn Abbey Woburn Abbey Woburn Abbey () occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, along with the diverse estate surrounding it, including the historic landscape gardens and deer park (by Humphry Repton), as well as more recently added attractions including Woburn Safari Park, a miniature railway and a garden/visitor centre. Woburn Abbey, comprising Woburn Park and its buildings, was set out and founded as a Cistercian abbey in
Woburn, Bedfordshire 1538 after the dissolution of the monasteries, and Woburn Safari Park. The village may have been called "Woburne Chapell" in Medieval times, in order to distinguish it from the abbey. Woburn has been burned down and rebuilt three times. A mediaeval chimney fire spread due to the prevalence of thatched roofs and closely built houses. Then, during the English Civil War, the Cavaliers burned down much of the village and in 1724 a third fire destroyed much of the town, which was re-built in the Georgian style that remains today. During the nineteenth century, Woburn was an important staging post