Great Fire of Woburn created an “architectural mixtape”

A devastating fire that destroyed much of a village 300 years ago led to a reconstruction that turned it into an “architectural mixtape.”

On June 19, 1724, the Great Fire of Woburn, Bedfordshire, started at the Red Lion Inn and then “went up and down” the High Street.

Dan Jones, of Woburn Events, said a free Woburn fire walk had been created to commemorate the tragedy.

A 45-minute audio tour explains how many of the buildings replaced were Georgian in style, using brick, “which makes them a little more fire resistant,” he explained.

Mr Jones said the fire “completely changed the village” as it was a “very important staging post”.

“He just knocked down the old wooden and thatched buildings. He lost his medieval market, all his stock, all the food… so it was a dramatic event.

“There were 30 inns, so if you wanted a night out in Bedfordshire in the 18th century, Woburn was the place to be.”

Woburn had also been affected by fires in 1595 and following an English Civil War skirmish in 1645.

At the time of the fire of 1724, the Duke of Bedford was in his abbey.

“He had architects and he must have noticed the burning village on the horizon,” Mr Jones said.

“He then sent his architects and they designed and rebuilt the village and that’s why it has such a unique style.

“If you look around the buildings, they are often described as an architectural mix, so each building looks a little different, a little strange.”

The audio tour will be downloadable via an app and a brochure is being created for anyone “not tech savvy”, he added.