Blunham House (now Blunham Court) was built in c1727-30 for Thomas Bromsall (d 1750). Following the death of his widow, Bromsall left Blunham to a cousin, John Orlebar, who sold the estate to Colonel John Campbell (d 1773) in 1768 for £4,300. Little is known about Campbell, but on his death the estate passed to his son, also John, and then to his grandson, who sold the estate in 1835 to Sir Peter Payne, the Bedfordshire reformer. The house remains in domestic usage.

Immediately on his purchase of Blunham, Campbell commissioned Robert Adam to make survey drawings of the house, and designs for a new interior decorative scheme. Some, but not all of Adam’s proposed decoration was carried out, but nothing survives owing to substantial alterations during the nineteenth century.

Literature:
A.T. Bolton, The architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1922, Volume II, index pp. 4, 65; D. King, The complete works of Robert & James Adam and unbuilt Adam, 2001, Volume II, p. 179; British listed buildings online: 'Blunham Court, Blunham House, Blunham'; Bedfordshire Borough Council website, Community and living archives: 'Blunham Court'

Frances Sands, 2013