Sharnbrook House and Estate up to 1768

Long before the present Sharnbrook House was built, the site was occupied by the mansion house for the manor of Parentines. There was probably a house here in mediaeval times but certainly by 1563 it was the “chief messuage” of the joint manor of Langtons and Parentines when it was bought by Thomas Cobb. His family owned the house, latterly called Broadgates Hall, till 1694 when the last male Cobb died.

An inventory of the house was made on 13 September 1675 on the death of William Cobb. While useful in listing the stock of his farm buildings, the inventory does not describe the house room-by-room and so it is difficult to get an accurate picture of the lay out of the house. Like most of the houses of the Tudor and Stuart period in Sharnbrook it was probably built out of stone. It was surrounded by a number of farm buildings such as the “greate barn”, “the barley, pease and oate hovel” and the “wheate hovell”.

The only room that is named in the inventory is the “Kitchen Chamber”, i.e. the room over the kitchen. The contents valued at £18 were: “one bedstead, one trundle bedstead, 2 feather beds with beding, Trunke chest and chest of drawers, close stoole, chaires, two stooles, Tooles, 2 stands, 1 Looking glass, 1 pair of bras rads (rods), one brasse fire shovell and tongs, 1 pair of bellowes and the hanginge of the same.” Cobb possessed a number of silver items.

In 1700 the manor of Langtons and Parentines was split between three sisters, including Anne Aspin. She lived at Sharnbrook House till 1724 and had the splendid gates cast, which now have been moved to a different site closer to Sharnbrook Church. By 1740 John Bullock held all the mortgages on the estate and on 23 and 24 May 1740 he bought the freehold of the Sharnbrook estate, which consisted of the mansion of Langton and Paretines, Home Farm and Upper Farm.

In addition to the mortgages for £2,579 he paid out an additional £3,180 to purchase the freehold. It was probably during the early years of his time at Sharnbrook that he had the modest red brick Sharnbrook House built. The drainpipes are dated 1749, consistent with his having decided to rebuild as soon as he purchased the estate.