In late March 1860 Sir Edward Page-Turner, 6th Baronet, decided to rebuild his house at Battlesden Park, near Woburn, Bedfordshire. Sir Joseph Paxton, by then famous for his work at the Crystal Palace, was consulted. Having had his first job as a garden boy on the Battlesden estate in the days of Sir Gregory, Sir Edward’s uncle, he was a natural choice. Over-burdened with work and growing old, Paxton suggested his son-in-law, George Henry Stokes, instead, as architect for the project. Together the two men visited the estate and found the old house ‘almost a ruin’. An agreement was quickly reached to build completely afresh with Stokes as the architect, though Paxton appears to have maintained an advisory position throughout construction. By 1864 the new house was finished.