A Cistercian abbey for 400 years, Woburn then became a private residence. The north wing was renovated in 1630, but the building only reached its full splendour with the remodelling of the west wing in 1747 by Henry Flitcroft (1697-1769), and the rebuilding of the south and east wings by Henry Holland in 1787 (the east wing was knocked down in 1950). The apartments are for the most part luxuriously furnished and decorated with superb 17C Dutch and Flemish paintings.