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	Places of Interest: Places to Visit
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	Specialist Shops: Antiques & Restoration Arts and Crafts Fashions Gifts Home and Garden Jewellery Food and Drink Shops

Woburn

First recorded as a Saxon hamlet in the 10th century, and again mentioned in the Domesday Book, Woburn grew into a small market town after the founding of the Cistercian Abbey here in 1145. All but destroyed by fire in 1720, this pretty village has retained many of the pleasant Georgian houses that were built subsequently, and the attractive shop fronts give the place a cheerful air. Situated at a major crossroads, between London and the north, and Cambridge and Oxford, Woburn also saw prosperity during the stagecoach era and by 1851 had 32 inns.

Woburn Abbey (see panel opposite), ancestral home of the Dukes of Bedford, is renowned for its art treasures, its Humphry Repton deer park and its antiques centre. The estate was given to the 1st Earl of Bedford in the will of Henry VIII, but the original building was partially destroyed by fire, and the present stately home dates mainly from the 1700s. Its extraordinary stock of treasures includes paintings by Van Dyck, Gainsborough, Reynolds and the famous Armada portrait of Elizabeth I by George Gower. The Venetian Room showcases 21 views of Venice by Canaletto, while other rooms display outstanding collections of English and French furniture, porcelain and antique statuary. Another attraction on site is the Woburn Abbey Antiques Centre with more than 50 dealers housed in a reconstruction of city streets of bygone days that includes genuine 18th-century shop facades rescued from demolition.

A short distance north of the abbey is the Wild Animal Kingdom and Leisure Park, home to a vast range of animals including eland, zebra, hippos, rhinos, lions, tigers, elephants and sea lions. Visitors can combine the thrill of the Safari Drive with the fun
of the Wide World Leisure Area, meet the animals in Animal Encounters, Australian Walkabout and Rainbow Landing, and attend the many demonstrations, keeper talks and feeding times. Children can let off steam in the indoor and outdoor playgrounds, travel on the Swan Boats and take a ride on the railway train. All the attractions are included in the entrance price.

There are fine views of Woburn Abbey and of Milton Keynes from Aspley Woods, one of the largest areas of woodland in Bedfordshire, set between Woburn and Woburn Sands. The woods offer peace, tranquillity and miles of tracks for walking.