1643 or 1645 is said to have been found on a chimney brick. It was a hunting lodge for the Duke of Cumberland with the pack of hounds kept on Dunstable Downs. It passed through a number of owners being bought by Mr R Cecil Peake in 1890, he installed a generator making Cumberland House the first in the village with electric lighting. He was a JP at St Albans for 37 Years and died in 1933. Gertrude Peake Place on the High Street is named after one of his daughters.

From Dodie Allman ( nee Trask, granddaughter of Robert Cecil Peake)

I wonder if you know, that when my grandfather bought Cumberland House in 1890, he also bought "the Heath", up on the corner of the Common, for his three unmarried sisters to live in. Also a lot of acreage on Crouch Hall Lane,. When Cumberland was sold to Lady Wise, in the thirties, my Aunts, Gertrude and Anna Peake moved into the Heath. After WW11, they sold the Heath ,keeping enough property to build "Heybrigge"-beside it. My nephew Cecil. V. Peake bought that house,then sold it and it was razed to build four town houses. My mother Mabel Peake was born in Cumberland House in 1894. I have such fond memories of the most wonderful Christmas's, with twenty people staying in the house. I could go on and on, I know every nook and cranny of that house. One time while visitng England, my husband and I knocked on the door of the Electricity Board, and I asked if I could show my husband. they were very reluctant, I think they thought we were Russian spys, this was probably 19 87ish, anyway, we finally were allowed all around the old part.

My father Basil F Trask built " Longcroft' on Crouch Hall Lane.

Now at age 82, (I have lived here 59 years in April) I was so interested to read about Redbourn. I have a family picture taken in Cumberland house garden on my bedroom wall.

Asheville, North Carolina.

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A more recent owner was the Central Electricity Generating Board and later National Grid. It was used as an electricity supply control centre until its recent closure. The old car park is now used for housing (Cumberland Mews) and the surgery for the Health Centre Practice. The back part of the Cumberland House Garden has become the Village Garden.

The old car park entrance has been used for filming, the most recent being for an exterior prison scene for Judge John Deed, on what is now the entrance to Miller Close.

From the Parish Council Minutes Nov 06: - A Company called “Somethin’ Else” is filming in Cumberland House and has sought permission to also film on the Common

The Village Garden

	Top left: The garden it was The picture above shows the new path under construction ( 08 Aug 2005) whilst that left shows the garden under construction as at 3 Dec 05 It was not until nearly 2008 that the Parish Council were able to open the garden

The garden linking the High Street and the Medical Centre is open daylight hours, the official opening was performed by The Deputy Mayor of St Albans Clr Geoff Harrison on 8 Dec 2007 at 10.30am.

Picnic in the Village Garden 15 June 2008

Village Garden	Welyn Harmony

See also: Cumberland Mews, Planning And Development, Redbourn Common, Redbourn History, Houses And Streets, Redbourn In Bloom Horticultural Show

July 2008