

BEDFORDsiimi:. 



BEDFORDSHIRE. 



IN 



There U * Wesleyau chapel, Kino a National school. There ore exten- 

 sive market -gardens in the pariah. The village is increasing in .-i/<- 

 and importance. The Great Northern railway hag a station here. 

 Sandy DM been supposed to hare been a Roman station. In the 

 neighbourhood IB an extensive ancient encampment. Skambronk H 

 a large Tillage aituated on the Ouse, 8 miles \'.N.\V. from r. 

 population 838. The church, which U spacious, U of the decorated 

 style, with perpendicular additions. There are two Baptist chapels. 

 Colworth House, the fine Beat of H. Magniac, Esq., is in this parish. 

 Siltar, 9} miles S. from Bedford, population of the hamlet 755. The 

 church was rebuilt in 1831 at the cost of Earl de Grey, who endowed 

 it with 150/. a year. Wrest Park, the Beat of Earl de Grey, in a spa- 

 cious and handsome mansion. Ttmjaford, 8 miles E.N.E. from Bedford, 

 population 622. It stands on the Ivel near its confluence with the 

 Oua, and is an ancient place, but is now of little importance. Tud- 

 tlin<rton, 15 miles S.S.W. from Bedford, population 2438, was once a 

 market-town, and a place of some consequence, but the market has 

 been long abolished, and the market-house pulled down. It is a 

 straggling irregularly-built town and has the appearance of consider- 

 able antiquity. The church IB cruciform, with a central tower. There 

 are places of worship belonging to the Wesleyanand Primitive Metho- 

 dists and Baptists. Pairs are held on April 25th, the first Monday 

 in June, November 2nd, and December 6th. Toddington House, 

 one mile from the town, was the residence of Thomas Wentworth, earl 

 of Strafford, and of the Duke of Cleveland. It is now the seat of 

 W. D. C. Cooper, Esq. Tuney, 8 miles W.N.W. from Bedford, popu- 

 lation 1028. The church is partly of the early English style, with 

 many later additions. In it are several splendid monuments of the 

 earls of Peterborough, &c. There are Wesleyan and Independent 

 chapels, National and Infant schools, and several parochial charities. 

 Many of the inhabitants are employed in the manufacture of lace, 



Diritiotu for Eccltnastical and Legal Purpoia.The number of 

 parishes in this county has been already given as 124, but this does 

 not include the five parishes in the town of Bedford, nor does it 

 represent the number of benefices, for several of these have been 

 consolidated. 



The county is in the diocese of Ely, and is under the jurisdiction 

 of the archdeacon of Bedford. It is divided into six rural deaneries, 

 namely, Bedford, Clapham, Dunstable, Eaton, Fleete, and Shefford. 



The county is in the Norfolk circuit The assizes and sessions are 

 held at Bedford. County courts are held at Bedford, Ampthill, Big- 

 gleswade, Leighton Buzzard, and Luton. Bedford is the chief place 

 for the election of the two members for the county. The other polling 

 places for the county are Sharnbrook in the north, Biggleswade in 

 the east, Leighton Buzzard in the south-west, Luton in the south, 

 and Ampthill. Besides the two county members, two members are 

 returned for the borongh of Bedford. 



Civil Hittory and Anliquitia. At the time of the Roman invasion 

 Bedfordshire appears to have formed part of the territory of the 

 Catyeuchlani ; a people conjectured by Camdeu to be the same as the 

 Cassii, mentioned by Caesar among the tribes who submitted to him 

 during his second invasion of the island. In common with the other 

 inhabitants of South Britain they foil under the Roman domination. 

 Three roads, which may be referred to this period or a still more 

 ancient one, crossed this county, and several camps or earth-works 

 Ktill remain. Of the roods, the WatlinC Street runs in a north-west 

 direction, and coincides in this county with the high rood from London 

 through Dunstable and Fenny Stratford (Bucks) to Coventry. It \va- 

 probably of British origin, though used and improved by the Romans, 

 who hnd on it their station of Durocobriv;c (Antoninus), or Forum 

 DUn (Richard of Cirencestor), now Dunstable. The Ikening or 

 Ikeneld Street, also of British origin, runs in a south-v. 

 through Duiurtablc. The third r.. , military i 



with the present high north road from nearBaldock (ll-r-( to the 

 ricinity of Bigglecwade, where the modern rood makes n b.-nd, while 

 the ancient one pursues a more direct course through TCI- 

 llamh, or Cow Comm -nbridgeshlre. It is suppa- 



a Roman road from the Ilc of |.;i\ to Cuml.rMp' w. 

 through Bedfordshire towards F- ord. 11,, the edge of a 



low range of th. ' . ,. r , near Dunstable, are 



the remains of a British "tat inn or town. These remains consist of a 

 vallum, nearly circular, thrown up on n level j.lain. m, 

 pace of alxmt 9 acres. The banks arc from 8 to 14 fc< < 

 There is no ditch on the south side, and on the south-west m, 

 only a very small one ; on the north-west Is a descent to the meadows. 

 Home have assigned to this work a 3ax< \bout a 



mile wpntwarrl of this is an .rkablc earth-work, call. .1 T..I 



t*rnhoc Cantle. It consists of a lofty circular mount, with u slight 

 vallnm round iN )w., and a larger one of an irregular form l 

 distance from it. On the south-east side of this Is a camj 

 form of a ; t long and 



j* n< 5 tl ' 'i-west to south-oast), 



de by n (nearly entire on the south-cast 



prot.'CtwJ on the fourth (the south-west) idc by a precipitous descent 

 The imtpilar work Is supposed to hare been of British and the paral- 



Roman origin. At or near the village of Sr.ndy, al 

 mile* north of Biggleswade, Camden supposes to have been the British 

 or Roman town called 3a\3nu by Ptolemwiu, and SolinM in the 



Chorography of the anonymous geographer of Ravenna ; but it is 

 placed by recent antiquaries with more probability at Droitwich. A 

 large Roman camp (once perhaps u British post), called popularly 

 Caesar's Camp, may be traced in the immediate vicinity of Sandy. It 

 is of irregular form, being adapted to the summit of the hill, and 

 incloses about 80 acres. There are circular inclosures of earth on the 

 beath near Loight ml at about four miles east of Bedford, 



near the road to Great Harfonl an.: n. The laat is small 



but of considerable !i. :,-V. with openings on the north and south 

 sides, resembling an amphitheatre. 



In the struggle maintained by the Britons against their Saxou 

 invaders, and again by the Saxons against the encroachments of the 

 Danes, Bedfordshire appears to have been the -< ntest 



At Bedford a battle win fought in 571, according to the Saxon < 

 icle, between Cutha, or Cuthwulf, brother of Ceanlin. or ('ealwin, 

 king of the West Saxons, and the Briton.*, in whit' 

 routed. Yet although this success was gained by the West Saxons, 

 the county was comprehended in the subsequently-formed kingdom 

 of Mercia, founded by a body of Angles. Offa, king of the Mercians, 

 is said to have Wn buried at Bedford ; but his sepulchre was < 

 away by an inundation of the Ouse. In the Dani 

 suffered severely, having indeed been rui: idcrs; 



but it was repaired by Kdward the Elder, son and M:. \lfred 



the Great The same prince afterwards besieged an.: 

 now Tempsford, which the Danes had fortified. In lulu, during the 

 war between Ethelre 1 II. and Sweyn, king of Denmark, 

 invaded this county, and burnt Bedford and Temesford; but in 1011 

 the county returned under the sway of Ethelred. 



An account of the castle of Bedford, and the historical circum- 

 stances connected with it, has been given in the article BEI 



It is supposed that all the other baronial rootle* in tl 

 any note had been destroyed in the reign of John ; and ij i s pci-hap* 

 owing to this that we read of so few occurrences in Bedfordshire 

 during the war of the Roses. This county was the scene of fi 

 Hpicuuus events during the civil war between Charles 1. and his 

 parliament. 



Bedfordshire possessed several monastic establishments. There- 

 were six ' greater monasteries,' that is, monasteries possessing above 

 2002. clear yearly revenue, at the time of the dissolution: n 

 Elstow Abbey, near Bedford, for Benedictine nuns, founded in the 

 time of William the Conqueror by his niece Judith ; Dunstable Priory, 

 for Black Canons, founded by King Henry 1. in the hitter part of his 

 reign ; Warden or Warden, otherwise De Sartis .rden, 



once a market-town, U to the right of the road to Bedford, IK i 

 Shefford and that town), founded by Walter Espec in 1135 for ( 

 cian monks; Woburn Abbey, for Cistercian monks, founded by Hugh 

 deBolebec in 1145 ; Chicksands Priory, near Sheflbnl, for < lilbertincs, 

 founded about 1150 by Paine de Beauchamp and Roais his wife 

 Newenham Priory, near Bedford, founded in the t i ry II. 



by Simon Beauchamp, who removed hither a priory of Black Canons 

 from St Paul's, Bedford. There were many minor establishments, 

 priories, nunneries, hospitals, &c. 



Of these monastic establishments there are no considerable remains 

 except of Dunstable Priory, Elstow Abbey, Newenhain I'ri. T\ , \\ 

 Abbey, and Chicksmids Priory. The parish churches of Dun 



tow were the conventual churches ; indeed Dunntable church 

 i only the nave of the original structure. These exhibit the Norman 

 intermingled with the early English style of architu I 



Among the parochial churches of this county ore some relics of 

 earty architecture. The tower and chancel of Clapham church, a 

 mile and a half north . . are among the comparatively few 



existing remains of Anglo-Saxon date and style. The nave of 

 Pudiugton church, in the north-west extremity of the e.ounty, has 

 the semi-circular arch and x.igzag moulding >ir of the 



Norman style ; the same style is also conspicuous on the south door- 

 ! St. Peter's at Bedford, and on the doorways of the churches 

 at Elstow. Flilv-iek. Thurleigh ("ii the ' <culp- 



tiin-il 8 M,and 



a ehapel at M ' lunch of Felmer- 



idiam, mi the OUKC, not far 1" men ; other 



incomplete tramp] him-hc* of Eaton Bray and Stud- 



it y of the county ; Barton-in-the- 



twecn l.utoii and Bedford ; Leighton Buzzard, Tin vey, and, 

 though in a small dcgrc 'ed English style, which 



prevailed in the 1 Ith eeiitni-y and "lish, in to be 



traced in I.. .en, and Ampthill rln. 



id; in Silsoe chapel ; and in some ohurchee already 



Colmworth, Tingreth, Man-ton Morctuine. Sane'. 



i'o|ile of the per])endicular style. "The material 



in the construction of the churches in this county 



was the stone drawn from the quarries of Totteruhoe (a village in 



the southern part of Bedfordshire); it is of soft quality, admirably 



1 for all purposes of carving and internal decoration, but as 



(Hi-ling little resistance to the weather, its substance quickly perishes 



when applied to external uses ; hence there is generally in this district 



an absence of that outside grandeur and elegance of form which meets 



the eye in other localities, though within there is no deficiency either 



in features of interest or beauty of detail fciid execution." (' Tht 



