THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 
OF BEDFORDSHIRE 
INTRODUCTION 
The county of Bedford was unusually rich in religious houses in 
proportion to its size, but none was of very ancient date. The abbey 
of Elstow was founded before the compiling of Domesday, and followed 
the Benedictine rule, which was as yet the only one introduced into 
England ; other houses of the same order were the priories of Beaulieu 
and Markyate, both founded about 1145. The two Cistercian abbeys 
of Warden and Woburn were founded respectively in 1135 and 1145. 
Austin canons had been introduced into this country some twenty-seven 
years, when Henry I. founded the priory of Dunstable about 1132; 
the canons of St. Paul’s, Bedford, were transferred to Newnham and 
brought under the same rule about 1166 ; Bushmead Priory was founded 
a little later. Under the general heading of the Augustinian rule should 
be reckoned the priory of Caldwell, of the order of the Holy Sepulchre, 
founded some time during the reign of Stephen or of Henry II. ; and the 
priory of Harrold, which followed the Arrouasian form of the rule, was 
founded about 1140. The Gilbertine priory of Chicksand dates from 
about 1150. ‘There was one alien priory, La Grave or Grovebury, at 
Leighton Buzzard, which was founded under Henry II. ; this, with the 
Preceptory of Hospitallers at Melchbourne, makes a total of twelve houses 
in all. The Templars had lands in Sharnbrook’ and elsewhere, and the 
churches of Langford and Little Stoughton ; but they had no Preceptory 
in this county. 
Besides these, there were certainly eight hospitals : four for lepers or 
the sick at Bedford, Luton (two) and Dunstable; and four for the destitute 
poor at Bedford, Farley, Hockliffe and Toddington. All of these were 
probably founded in the twelfth century except Toddington, which be- 
longs to the reign of Henry VI. In the thirteenth century the Friars 
Minor settled at Bedford, and the Friars Preachers at Dunstable. And 
in the reign of Henry IV. the church of Northill became collegiate. 
It may be noted here that besides these regular and ordinary forms 
of the religious life, Bedfordshire had also from time to time its hermits 
and anchorets. The distinction between these two forms’ of solitude is 
1 Rot. Charta (Rec. Com.), 1 John, p. 2b; Chart. R. 37 Hen. III. pt. i. m. 3. 
2 It has been so often made that there is no need here to repeat it; e.g. Dalgairns’ essay on 
‘ The Spiritual Life of Medieval England,’ which is the preface to Hilton’s Scale of Perfection, ed. 1901. 
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