Wrest Park

Wrest Park: The Ultimate Bedfordshire Country Estate

Bedfordshire and the surrounding counties have their fair share of mansions and estates to visit. In fact, those counties actually have more than the rest of the country put together so if you are in the area then it is worth taking the opportunity to visit one or two to see how people used to live. One of the best in Bedfordshire is Wrest Park. It is actually a country estate and features a listed country house and beautiful formal gardens that have been maintain for centuries. If a flavour of the traditional upper class life is what you want then Wrest Park is the place to visit.

The house at Wrest Park is Grade 1 listed so it has much the same appearance as it did years and years ago. It was actually built over the five years between 1834 and 1839 by Thomas de Grey, an earl and aspiring architect, to replace his family’s previous home, which was also located on this land. The inspiration was not the traditional English mansion though, it was in fact the decorative and classic buildings that de Grey had seen in Paris just the year before building began. As such, the architecture is somewhat out of place for the area but absolutely beautiful nevertheless.

Moving inside the house, the interior is actually in the Rococo revival style and is highly decorative. You can see them for yourself if you are visiting Wrest Park. The reception rooms are open to the public so you can admire the beauty of the house if you so wish, but if you really want to experience beauty then you can just take a walk around the gardens!

The gardens of Wrest Park occupy 90 acres of land and are amongst the grandest and most extravagant in the country today. The original gardens were modified by Capability Brown between 1758 and 1760, but they are still just as beautiful as ever and are lovingly tended all year round. There are canals and lakes in the grounds and they just add to the grandness of the estate. At the moment, all of the older features are being restored to their former glory as well so you can fully experience everything that Wrest Park has to offer.