A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



the outer orders being continuous. The chancel 

 walls where exposed are very roughly constructed of 

 brick and stone rubble, and have in places a very 

 modern appearance. The nave has two windows on 

 the south, each of three cinquefoiled lights with 

 clumsy three-centred heads, the muUions being con- 

 tinued up to the arch of the window, and it seems 

 that only the lower part of the tracery is mediaeval. 

 The north windows are copied from them, but are 

 entirely of a later date, and the north wall, which is 

 thinner than the south, is supported by large brick 

 buttresses. The tower is of two stages with a low- 

 pitched slate roof. Its walls are 5 ft. thick, and the 

 internal angles are quoined. In its east wall it has a small 

 fifteenth-century doorway opening inwards to the nave, 

 in its north wall is a blocked doorway of somewhat 

 similar type, but a little more elaborate, and in the 

 south wall is a tall fifteenth-century arch of two 

 chamfered orders with moulded capitals and splayed 

 jambs with a roll between the two orders of the 

 jambs. This is an early example of a feature com- 

 monly occurring in the neighbourhood later in the 

 fifteenth century, and appears to be developed from 

 the small rolls in the angles of the quatrefoiled four- 

 teenth-century piers to be found in so many of the 

 churches. Its use here is purely illogical, and corre- 

 sponds with no member of the arch above. The 

 archway, as already said, must have opened into a 

 transept, but is now blocked, with a small doorway 

 pierced in the blocking. In the west wall of the 

 tower is a fifteenth-century window of two cinquefoiled 

 lights with a quatrefoil over. The upper stage of the 

 tower is lighted by single windows on each face, 

 which do not appear to be older than the arches 

 below, except that the west window, which is a small 

 round-headed light, is possibly of earlier date. The 

 internal quoining of the tower shows no signs of 

 early tooling, although it is difficult to believe that 

 the tower itself is not considerably older than any 

 other part of the church. It has, however, undergone 

 so much change that it has lost any traces from which 

 its former condition can be deduced. 



The roofs of the church are of low pitch and 

 modern, but with some old timbers re-used, and are 

 covered with blue slates. 



The pulpit is of eighteenth-century date, with 

 reading-desk and clerk's seat, and the font is plastered 

 and of no interest. 



In the chancel floor are four slabs with inscriptions- 

 to children of Thomas and Elizabeth Cokayne of 

 Astwick, 1657-8, and there are also several modem 

 monuments ranging from 1823 to 1866 to the Fossey 

 family. 



There is one bell in the western tower. 



The plate consists of a silver chalice of 1794, a 

 plated paten, and a pewter almsdish. 



The earliest register, which has only lately been 

 recovered from an old chest at Stotfold, runs from 

 1655 to 1717. The second book, beginning 1718, 

 contains burials and baptisms to 1812 and marriages 

 1735 to 1812. 



■ Astwick was originally a parochial 

 JDVOWSON chapel, but by 1291 had becomes 

 parish church." The advowson was 

 granted to the priory of Chicksands by Simon de Beau- 

 champ, whose father Payn had founded the monastery 

 about the year 1 1 50." This gift was confirmed by the 

 charter of his son William to the monastery." In 

 1 29 1 the tithes of Chicksands in Astwick were 

 assessed at 13/. 41/," At the Dissolution the tempo- 

 ralities of Chicksands Priory were worth £\ 1 3^. 4V., 

 whilst the rectorial tithes amounted to £-j 6s. %d.^ 

 The advowson appears to have remained with the 

 crown for some short time, but Edward Butler was 

 holding it at the time of his death in 1 561," and 

 Beckingham Butler was presenting in 1605." In 

 1660 the right of presentation was exercised by 

 Sir Samuel Browne," and it appears to have followed 

 the same descent as the manor till the eighteenth 

 century."* 



In 1 764 Astwick Rectory was annexed to the vicarage 

 of Arlesey (q.v.), and at the present day the right of pre- 

 sentation is vested in the Rev. George Mayhew. 



There are no endowed charities in this parish. 



LITTLE BARFORD 



Bereford (xi cent.), Berkeford (xii-xvi cent.), Little 

 Berkford (xvii-xviii cent.). 



Little Barford is a small parish of 1,200 acres on 

 the Huntingdonshire borders. The western boundary 

 is formed by the River Ouse, and the land here is 

 liable to floods ; the south-east is given up to agricul- 

 ture. The soil and subsoil of the upper part of the 

 parish is clay, and of the lower part gravel. Little 

 Barford contains 608 acres of arable land, 630 

 of permanent grass, and 17 of woods and planta- 

 tions.' The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, 

 beans, and market produce. The high road from 

 Tempsford to St. Neots runs from south-west to 

 north-west of the parish, approaching the village from 

 the south. The rectory lies on the east side, and be- 

 yond it on the same side stands Rowe's Cottage, where 

 Nicholas Rowe, the dramatic poet, was born in 1673. 



It is a simple two-story building, which has recently 

 received a complete coat of pebble-dash, and shows 

 little trace of age. A picturesque row of low thatched 

 cottages lines the road on the east opposite the 

 entrance to Little Barford 

 House, the seat of Mr. Julius 

 Alington, the present lord of 

 the manor. The church of 

 St. Denis stands in the grounds 

 at some distance from the road 

 and to the west of the house, 

 which is comparatively modern 

 and of no architectural in- 

 terest. South-west of the 

 church is an isolated building 

 now divided into three cot- 

 tages, and probably of some 



■6 y.CH. Beds. !, 318 ; PopeNich. Tax. 

 (Rec. Com.), 35. 



^7 Hunter, Fines^ i, 21. 



'^ Dugdale, Mon. vi, 950. 



" Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 35. 



™ Fakr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 197. 



^^ Chan. Inq. p.m. vol, cxxxiv. No. 93. 

 It was then held of the queen as of her 

 manor of East Greenwich. 



8» Beds. N. and Q. vol. ii. 



206 



Alington. Sable a 

 bend engrailed between six 

 billets argent. 



88 Inst. Bks. P.R.O. 

 ^ Ibid. ; see also Astwick manor. 

 1 Statistic! from Bd. of Agric. (1905). 

 The details include land in other parishes. 



