Ampthill Park & Cooper's Hill (The Firs) - A Tour Around the Streets of Ampthill

AMPTHILL PARK, more accurately Great Park, was formed when Sir John Cornwall purchased the manor of Ampthill from the St Amand family early in the 15th century. Ampthill Castle, 'stately on a hill with four or five fair towers of stone' occupied a considerable site between the Woburn Road and the top of the hill where Lord Ossory was to put the Katherine Cross centuries later. No contemporary picture of it has yet been found, and some sketchy plans are hard to interpret. But the descriptions of those who saw it tell of an inner and outer court with high walls punctuated by 'fair towers' or turrets. There was no keep, but accommodation was built against the walls, the principal buildings such as the great drawing room and the chapel, being on the hill. Cornwall died in 1443 and was buried at Blackfriars in London; his wife had died some years earlier. Their only son having been killed In the French wars, the estate passed - after protracted dispute with Cornwall's illegitimate sons - to Lord Edmund Grey of Wrest, who paid 6,500 marks (£4,300) for it in 1454. Lord Edmund's grandson, a gambler and wastrel, forfeited the estate to Henry VII when unable to repay a debt, and Ampthill came into royal ownership. It was Henry VIII who, by making Ampthill a favourite base, brought prosperity and prominence to the town. The court came down at least once a year, usually in autumn as part of a progress from Windsor to Grafton in Northamptonshire, and although affairs of state received their due attention, the king's chief pastime was hunting. KATHERINE OF ARAGON, married to Henry for almost 20 years before he began to take steps to end their relationship, was particularly fond of Ampthill, although her confinement here while Cranmer's court at Dunstable Priory decided her fate could not have been a pleasant. The court announced the invalidity of the marriage on 23rd May 1533; she refused to meet the deputation sent to inform her until 3rd July, and then, surrounded by her household and friends, and with great dignity, made her defiant stand that she was the king's true wife. After Henry's death the castle was neglected, his immediate successors no doubt having no liking for a place with such unhappy associations, and by Queen Elizabeth's time it was becoming ruinous and quite uninhabitable. Royal visitors of that period (and later, like James I who had plans to rebuild the castle) stayed at Great Lodge, the steward's house on the site of the present Park House. In the 1680s much building work was done at Great Lodge for Diana, Dowager Countess of Ailesbury, who had moved there from Houghton House. After her death John, Lord Ashburnham, whose father had received the park from Charles II in repayment of a loan, planned to extend the house and make it his principal home. For a time Nicholas Hawksmoor was his architect, but his plans were considered too drastic, and first John Lumley of Northampton and then William Winde, were brought in to meet the earl's exacting requirements. But he died before the work was finished and park and house passed eventually into the possession of John, 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory who in the 1770s began a complete reconstruction and enlargement of the house, for which he engaged the architect Sir William Chambers. At the same time he employed Lancelot 'Capability' Brown to landscape the park. The principal front which for Great Lodge and Lord Ashburnham's house had been facing south was made to face north, the remains of Great Lodge being on that side of the building were swept away, and an imposing main entrance with an impressive flight of steps up to the door at first floor level took its place. New wings were constructed, and the whole building lengthened. The Katherine Cross was erected by Lord Ossory in 1773 in memory of Queen Katherine of Aragon and has undergone major refurbishment during 2008/9. A companion to the Katherine Cross was erected by the Duke of Bedford to commemorate the training camp he built (and financed) on this site in World War I. The memorial records the remarkable fact that 10,604 men were brought here, of whom 707 were killed In action. Some of the bronze plates bearing the names of the latter were stolen in 1970. COOPER'S HILL - known locally as The Firs - is one of the few remaining examples of the heaths, which one stretched across Bedfordshire along the Greensand Ridge. A lowland heath of National importance, it has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by English Nature and was declared a Local Nature Reserve in 1980 by Bedfordshire County Council. Owned by Ampthill Town Council, the heath land is managed by the Wildlife Trust. A beautiful area highly coloured when the heather is in bloom, is heath is also very delicate and should be treated with great respect.