Woburn / Woberne / Woburne
Image copyright © Mr Biz, 2008
CC-BY-SA-2.0
Results: 2 records
view of church exterior - northwest view
Scene Description: Source caption: "Old St Mary's Church, Woburn. "Set back from the main road is the old parish church which was reduced to use in 1868 as a Mortuary Chapel. The chapel is now the Woburn Heritage centre and has exhibits about the town, Abbey and local history. Set six yards away from the chapel is the tower. The stump is believed to be from the original medieval church of Woburn. The tower houses a beautiful clock made by Benjamin Louis Vulliamy, given by the 6th Duke of Bedford in 1830 and is still in working order.""
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Mr Biz, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph taken 8 June 2008 by Mr Biz [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/836143] [accessed 23 September 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church exterior - south view
Scene Description: Source caption: "St. Mary the Virgin, Woburn. Situated in Park Street on the way out of the town towards the Abbey's park, this Victorian church, in the French Gothic style was built between 1865 and 1868. The full cost of its construction - a whopping (for that time) £35000 was found by William, 8th Duke of Bedford. It replaces the old church of St Mary - of which only the tower remains - in Bedford Street."
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Rob Farrow, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 April 2008 by Rob Farrow [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/775649] [accessed 23 September 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
INFORMATION
FontID: 17700WOB
Church/Chapel: Old Parish Church of St. Mary [mortuary chapel; redundant -- cf. FontNotes]
Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin
Church Location: 38 A4012 / Bedford St., Woburn, Central Bedfordshire MK17 9QL [cf. FontNotes]
Country Name: England
Location: Bedfordshire, East
Directions to Site: Located on the A4012, 8 km SE of Milton Keynes
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of St. Albans
Historical Region: Hundred of Manshead
Church Notes: medieval church; later mortuary chapel; now redundant
There are two entries for Woburn [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP9433/woburn/] [accessed 23 September 2015], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. Kelly's 1898 Directory of Bedfordshire notes about the Old Church of St. Mary at Woburn: "the tower was built or rebuilt in the 17th century by Sir Francis Staunton knt. with the material of the parish church at Birchmore". The Victoria County History (Bedfordshire, vol. 3, 1912) reports the existence of two medieval churches here; the church at Birchmore, documented since 1308, "has long since disappeared", and not even its location is known; the church at Woburn, "was pulled down in 1868, and was rebuilt as a mortuary chapel [...] The old tower was preserved, but so much repaired and altered that nothing but the lower part of the walls shows any old masonry." The VCH (ibid.) further notes the existence of a medieval abbey here: "Woburn Abbey, the seat of the Duke of Bedford, stands to the south-west of the village of Woburn, on the site of the Cistercian house founded by Hugh de Bolebec in 1145. There is no trace of the original monastic buildings remaining". A font of marble was donated to the church here in 1838. [NB: we have no information on the medieval fonts of any of the churches here].
COORDINATES
REFERENCES
Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2011-10-27 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
