Cistercian abbey for 400 years, Woburn became a private residence. The northern wing was renovated in 1630, but the building only achieved its splendour with the renovation of the western wing in 1747 by Henry Flitcroft (1697-1769), and the rebuilding of the southern and eastern wings by Henry Holland in 1787 (the eastern wing was knocked down in 1950).

It was founded in 1714 from the medieval foundations of Gloucester College. The original foundations are still present under the five monastic houses to the south of the main quad. The other Classical buildings are 18 C, except for the chapel with its melodramatic 19 C interior designed by William Burges. The gardens and lake are peaceful and charming.

Today the contents of this natural history museum pale into insignificance beside the extraordinary building that contains them. The cast iron neo-Gothic cathedral is designed like a railway station, and decorated with delicate 19 C stone carvings of animals and plants by the O'Sheas, an Irish family of masons and sculptors.

One of the four Norman round churches in England, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was founded by Simon de Senlis, veteran of the First Crusade, with a circular nave and ambulatory.