Woburn, Bedfordshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1866.

WOBURN:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1866.

"WOBURN, a parish, a small town, a sub-district, and a district, in Beds. The town stands 2¾ miles SE of Woburn-Sands railway station, and 14 SW of Bedford; grew adjacent to a Cistertian abbey, founded in 1145, by Hugh de Bolebec; is now a seat of petty-sessions; carries on lace-making and straw-plait-making; consists of well-built streets, intersecting one another at right angles; and has a head post-office, a hotel, a town-hall, a market-house rebuilt in 1830, a church rebuilt in 1868, Independent and Wesleyan chapels, a literary and scientific institution, endowed schools for boys and for girls, alms-houses for 20 persons, a workhouse, a weekly market on Friday, and 4 annual fairs.

Woburn Abbey was given, at the dissolution of monasteries, to Lord Russell; was visited, in 1572, by Queen Elizabeth, - in 1645, by Charles I.; was rebuilt, in the manner of a noble mansion, in 1774, by the fourth Duke of Bedford; is a quadrangular structure, 200 feet on each side, with an Ionic front; includes a saloon 35½ feet by 25½, a library 50 feet by 24½, and a picture gallery 111½ feet by 17¾; contains a rich collection of paintings, sculptures, and other works of art; and stands in a richly ornate park, 12 miles in circumference.

The parish comprises 3,200 acres. Real property, £8,987; of which £100 are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 2,049; in 1861, 1,764. Houses, 364. The decrease of pop. was caused mainly by the removal of an extensive iron foundry. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely. Value, £251. Patron, the Duke of Bedford. - The sub-district contains ten parishes. Acres, 16,791. Pop., 6,771. Houses, 1,475. - The district includes Toddington sub-district, and comprises 29,603 acres. Poor-rates in 1863, £8,473. Pop. in 1851, 12,075; in 1861, 11,684. Houses, 2,487. Marriages in 1866, 98; births, 368, - of which 34 were illegitimate; deaths, 237, - of which 86 were at ages under 5 years, and 8 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 785; births, 3,903; deaths, 2,555. The places of worship, in 1851, were 18 of the Church of England, with 4,610 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 788 sittings; 4 of Baptists, with 734 s.; 11 of Wesleyans, with 1,800 sittings; and 4 of Primitive Methodists, with 410 sittings The schools were 12 public day-schools, with 1,076 scholars; 8 private day-schools, with 215 sittings; 34 Sunday schools, with 2,800 sittings; and 4 evening schools for adults, with 113 sittings."