Above: The Flying Duchess' Room. Right: Duchess May in her Moth biplane. Below: Woburn Abbey's grounds are open and worth seeing during wintertime
crisis. During the First World War she organised temporary wards for the care of wounded soldiers at the Abbey, becoming a fully qualified nurse and radiographer. In her later years, aviation became Mary’s great passion
and gave her the name she is remembered by today. She survived a forced landing in the Sahara and being shot at by Berber tribesmen in North Africa, but disappeared during a short flight to view the flooded fens in 1937. Some parts of her Gipsy Moth eventually washed ashore near Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. There’s more than enough in the house to occupy anyone
with a passion for art and history for a day, but Woburn offers plenty to see and do outside, too. A few years ago the gardens did not live up to the grand house, but since 2005 the grounds have been restored by gardens manager Martin Towsey and his team. Woburn Garden’s heyday was in the early 19th century,
when it was transformed by the celebrated landscape gardener, Humphry Repton. Martin Towsey and his colleagues have used Repton’s original designs, notes and watercolours to bring the grounds back to their very best. Repton only became a landscape gardener after trying his hand at several other careers, but soon came to be considered the successor to Capability Brown and was known as Britain’s foremost garden designer. For its grounds, its history, its art and the fascinating
people who have lived and worked there, Woburn deserves its place as one of Britain’s best-loved country houses.
Woburn Abbey is a short distance from the M1 (J12 or J13) . The garden and deer park are open all year except 24-26 December. Woburn Abbey is open from March to October. For more information call 01525 290 333 or visit
www.woburn.co.uk
48 BRITAIN
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