Spread across roughly 100 hectares in the Farley Hill estate on the southern edge of Luton, Stockwood Park is one of Bedfordshire’s larger urban green spaces. The park sits just a short drive south of Luton town centre and draws visitors for golf, museum displays, formal gardens, and rugby, making it a well-used open space across all seasons.
History of the Estate
The land was originally the private estate surrounding Stockwood House, built in 1740 by John Crawley. The grounds were laid out to reflect the standing of one of Bedfordshire’s leading landowners at the time, with enclosed walled gardens growing fruit and vegetables for the household. Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, the house was converted into a hospital for children suffering from hip diseases, named the Alexandra Hospital for Children with Hip Disease. Patients were transferred from Bartholomews Hospital at Swanley in Kent by converted single-deck buses, partly because Swanley was considered too exposed near the balloon barrage. Luton itself was not without wartime risk, given the nearby motor works, and the hospital initially lacked X-ray facilities, requiring patients to be taken by private car to Luton and Dunstable Hospital. An X-ray unit was eventually installed in the stable block. The house fell into poor condition and was demolished in 1964, leaving the grounds to be developed into the public park that exists today.
The Golf Centre and Stockwood Discovery Centre
Stockwood Park Golf Centre has an 18-hole course (par 69) and a 9-hole par-3 course, along with practice facilities and a FootGolf course. Narrow, tree-lined fairways put a premium on accuracy, and the mix of holes suits players at varying levels. Pay-as-you-play rates are available, and regular golfers can purchase season tickets. Stockwood Golf Club runs year-round competitions from the same site. Elsewhere in the park, the Stockwood Discovery Centre occupies the 18th-century stables of the former Stockwood House. Its displays cover rural crafts and trades representative of Bedfordshire life before the Industrial Revolution, with the collection originally amassed by T. W. Bagshawe.
Gardens and Grounds
One of the walled gardens that once supplied the house with produce now contains a sequence of period gardens tracing changing styles through the centuries. The Medieval Garden covers the 12th to 15th centuries, displaying herbs and plants grown for medicinal, culinary, and dyeing purposes. A 16th-century garden is laid out in knots – a typical Elizabethan feature – planted with germander, hyssop, and box, with the open spaces filled with brick dust or crushed shells for contrast. A small formal Dutch garden, decorated with clipped hedges and urns, replicates designs by William Kent for Alexander Pope’s garden. Stockwood Park Rugby Club also operates within the park’s grounds.