Woburn

Small town in Bedfordshire, England, southwest of Bedford; population (2001) 1,700. Nearby is Woburn Abbey, an 18th-century house which has a large collection of paintings and is the home of the Duke of Bedford. The grounds, landscaped by Humphrey Repton (1752–1818), include a safari park.

Straw-plaiting was formerly an important occupation in Woburn.

Woburn

City in Middlesex County, northeast Massachusetts; population (2000 est) 37,300. It is located 16 km/10 mi north-northwest of Boston. It manufactures pharmaceutical chemicals, photographic supplies, leather goods, gelatine, and tools, and engages in electronics research and development. The town was incorporated in 1642; it was made a city in 1889.

The area was first settled in 1640. The Middlesex Canal (1803) spurred the town's development as did the railway (1835). Leather tanning and shoemaking were 19th-century industries in Woburn.

Woburn has eight entries on the National Register of Historic Places. The Rumford House was the birthplace of physicist Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. US inventor Charles Goodyear first vulcanized rubber in Woburn in 1839.