Brief history of Wrest Park
Wrest Park was the home of the de Grey family for nearly 700 years - from the early 13th century until the death of Auberon Herbert, 9th Baron Lucas in 1917, when it was sold to the northern industrialist John George Murray.
700 Years in the Family
Each generation of the family left their mark on the estate, but three personalities dominate the development of the landscape. Henry, duke of Kent, laid out the massive formal woodland gardens in the early 18th century. Jemima, Marchioness Grey softened the edges of the garden after 1740 in line with the then fashionable English landscape style. And finally, Thomas Earl de Grey created the Upper Gardens in the 1830s after demolishing the original family house and building the French chateau-style mansion still in place today.
Get to know personalities from the past and see them brought to life with an interactive exhibition in the Bowling Green House showing them enjoying life in Wrest Park Gardens. Two new exhibitions which tell the story of the estate and the history of the de-Grey family can also be enjoyed in the mansion. Alternatively take an audio tour and discover more about the property on foot.
Recent History
Wrest Park was sold by the family in 1917 after the 9th Baron Lucas was killed in action as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps.
The purchaser, brewing and mining magnate John George Murray quickly established himself in Bedfordshire society, but by the early 1930s he was in financial difficulties and was keen to dispose of the now neglected estate, which he put up for sale in 1934.
The house and about 260 acres of parkland were eventually bought in 1939 by the Sun Insurance Company for use as their wartime headquarters. Though volunteers maintained some of the gardens close to the house, the grounds were generally neglected and much of the parkland was ploughed up to help the war effort.
In 1946, Wrest Park was bought by the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works and leased to the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering, later the Silsoe Institute, which carried out important research into farm mechanisation, food processing and environmental management.
In 2006, the Silsoe Institute closed and English Heritage took over the house, some of the service buildings and the estate. It is now implementing a 20-year plan to reveal the layers if over 300 years of garden history as developed from 1680 to 1917. The first phase of the 20 year plan will be unveiled in August 2011.
In 2008 WEC having recognised the immense potential of the park to breathe new life into the regional business community, commercial property specialists Wrest Park Ltd acquired the site in late 2008. Since then they have been carrying out a sympathetic and systematic programme of restoration & refurbishment to create an enterprise park for a new era.
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