Wrest Park House and Gardens: Huge, impressive and stunning stately home to visit. A must see!

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

We ended up going to Wrest Park more by chance than by design. And were so glad we did, it is a stunning house, incredible gardens and well worth a visit.

We were staying about 8 miles away on a weekend break and picked up a leaflet in reception, and thought it worth a visit. So glad we had.

The house and gardens, located in Bedfordshire England, are now looked after by English Heritage, who are working hard on a 20 year plan to restore the house and massive grounds back to the glory of the 1800s. They are working to restore it after years of being let out to the American Ambassador as a country retreat, and acting as a hospital in World War I after which it was sold. It was the home of Sun Insurance during the Second World War II, and after 1948 was home of the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering.

The De Grey family originally owned the property and rounds, and had done for several hundreds of years. The house that is there today was built by Thomas De Grey the 1830s to replace one about 200 metres away that was demolished. He built it in a French style, so it looks like you have been transported to French Chateau.

The place is manned by volunteers, who are very enthusiastic, knowledgeable and passionate about the house and grounds. They were all incredibly helpful and friendly.

There is so much to see and explore on the property. As you arrive there is a visitor centre with a tea room/ restaurant, and shop.

Then you can go into the house. Not all of it is open, as they still working on restoring it. There is though some impressive rooms and spaces open. As you enter, there is a timeline of the history of the house in relation to other major historical events. You can then visit the Countess Sitting Room, which overlooks the garden and into the Conservatory. This is the only room with furniture in.

You can also then explore some other rooms that include the real “wow factor” staircase room, which was used for functions and then 3 rooms off it that includes the ante-library, library and drawing room. They are large and impressive, as my photos and video show.

The gardens are absolutely huge and sprawling, and if you not up for walking there are golf buggies that volunteers will ferry you around to see everything. If you up for walking, then that is possible too.

You can view the Orangery, Bath House, Bowling Green House, Chinese Bridge and Temple, American Gardens and then the huge long lake with Pavilion at the end. This beautiful building used to be where parties were held, and is breathtaking and impressive.

This house and gardens were a real surprise, in both size and impressiveness of it. The work being done by English Heritage is impressive as they are painstakingly from original plans and drawings trying to restore the original look and vision. So are even taking out trees that had been there for many years to turn back the clock to the vision.