Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey, the seat of the dukes of Bedford, was closed in 1953, after a the death of the heavily indebted 12th Duke, and reopened in 1955 as an amusement park by his son, who succeeded him as duke and died in November 2002 in Santa Fe, New Mexico (U.S.A.). When asked about the unfavorable comments by other nobles when he turned the family home into a theme park, he said, "I do not relish the scorn of the peerage, but it is better to be looked down on than overlooked."The 14th Duke,who had as courtesy Marquess of Tavistock run Woburn Abbey for years before the death of his Monte Carlo-based father,died in June 2003.The 15th Duke now runs Woburn Abbey.
