BIGGLESWADE HUNDRED 



BIGGLESWADE 



fifteenth-century date. The roofs of the church have 

 no old details, and there is little old woodwork be- 

 yond some plain and heavy bench ends and rails in 

 the nave, a seventeenth-century church chest, and an 

 altar table now cut in half. At the east end of the 

 north aisle, where marks of a parclose screen show in 

 the arcade, is a large iron-bound chest with rounded top, 

 7 ft. long, and of considerable though uncertain age. 



The font, in the north aisle, has an octagonal 

 bowl with beaded angles, standing on five small 

 columns, and is plain and perhaps unfinished as re- 

 gards the panels of the bowl — it may be of fourteenth- 

 century date and shows traces of red paint. 



The only old monument is a brass on the nave 

 floor with the figures of Thomas Perys, 1535, and 

 Agnes his wife, with an indent for a large rectangular 

 plate below them. 



There are four bells, the treble by Richard 

 Chandler, 168 1, the second by Christopher Graye, 

 1 66 1, the third blank, and the tenor of 1759, bear- 

 ing the name of the Rev. J. Gamble, rector 1733-63. 



The plate consists of a communion cup and cover 

 paten of 1 571, the latter a good deal modernized, 

 and a modern set of parcel gilt plate of 1865, chalice, 

 paten, flagon and spoon. 



The earliest registers preserved date from 1653, 

 and are extracts in a MS. book. The first original 

 book now left begins with a loose sheet of entries 

 1661—70, and there are consecutive entries from 1678. 



The first mention that has been 

 JDrOWSON found of the church of Little Bar- 

 ford is in 1 1 78, when a papal bull 

 of Pope Alexander confirmed the church to the 

 abbey of Ramsey, to whom the overlordship of the 

 manor also belonged." In 1 3 1 7 the church was in 

 the possession of the lords of the manor,*' since which 

 date the right of presentation appears always to have 

 remained in their hands." 



In 1535 the living, which is a rectory, was worth 

 ^13 1 6s. 2i^." 



Little Barford (Charities). See 

 CHARITIES Parish of Dunton.— The Rev. Robert 

 Bamford also charged his house in 

 St. Paul's parish, Bedford, known as the Black Bull 

 Inn, with the following annual payments, namely : 

 10/. to the rector for preaching a sermon on the 

 anniversary of the donor's death (24 August, 1720), 

 20/. to buy bread for distribution in the church 

 among the poor not receiving collection every Sunday 

 between Michaelmas and Lady Day, ^3 to teach six 

 poor children to read and write, with the Church 

 Catechism, and l o/. to the parish clerk. The several 

 charges, amounting to ^e,, are regularly paid by 

 Mr. E. P. Rose of 50, High Street, Bedford, the 

 owner of the property charged. In 1905 2 cwt. 

 of coal were given to each of twenty-seven house- 

 holders, j^3 was paid to the school, and 10/. each to 

 the rector and clerk. 



BIGGLESWADE WITH STRATTON AND HOLME 



Bicheleswade, Bichelesworde (xi cent.), Bykeles- 

 wade (xiii— xiv cent.), Bickleswade (xvii cent.). 



Biggleswade, including the hamlets of Stratton and 

 Holme, is a parish with an acreage of 4,647^ acres, 

 of which 2,932 acres are arable land, 1,148^ are 

 permanent grass, and 6\ woods and plantations.' 



The slope of the ground is from south to west, the 

 west of the parish, bounded by the River Ivel, being 

 especially low-lying, and subject to floods in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of the river. The lowest 

 point here is only 86 ft. above the level of the sea. 

 Toplers Hill in the south is the highest district, 249 ft. 

 above the sea level. The Great Northern Railway 

 main line passes through the parish, and has a station 

 in the town of Biggleswade. The Roman road to 

 the north also traverses the parish, running north- 

 wards from Baldock. The town of Biggleswade itself 

 is concentrated in the west central part of the parish. 

 Stratton, a scattered hamlet, lies a mile and a half to 

 the south-east of the town. Holme a mile to the south. 

 In the north lies Biggleswade Common. The Roman 

 road, leaving Bleak Hall to the south soon after it 

 enters the parish, passes through the hamlet of Stratton, 

 which takes its name from its position. A branch 

 road on the north leads to Stratton Park, lying in 1 60 

 acres of beautifully-wooded grounds. The main road 

 approaches the town of Biggleswade from the east, 

 and at the entrance to the town divides into two 

 branches, one taking a westerly direction, and going 

 on to Moggerhanger, while the other passes along the 

 outskirts of the town on the east, and goes on to 

 Potton. 



Another road leading from Langford in the south 

 passes straight through the hamlet of Holme, entering 

 the town of Biggleswade at the south-west. On the 

 west of the road at the north end of the hamlet lies 

 Scroop's Farm, an interesting reminder of the Scroops, 

 who in the early fourteenth century were manorial 

 lords here. A path here leads down to the river past 

 the moat and Holme Mills. 



The town of Biggleswade is built round a large 

 oblong market-place from which the main streets 

 radiate, Shortmead Street running westward to the 

 church and thence north, and crossing the Ivel by a 

 bridge on the outskirts of the town, where it joins a 

 branch of the Great North Road ; Hitchin Street, 

 running south ; and High Street, running east to the 

 London Road. In the south-west of the town there 

 is a second bridge over the Ivel. The principal house 

 in the parish is Stratton Park, a modern house about 

 two miles south-east of the town. 



The town was much damaged by fire in the eigh- 

 teenth century ; a note in the registers of June, 

 1785, records the destruction of 103 houses in five 

 hours, which would suggest a predominance of half 

 timber and plaster buildings. 



There are no domestic buildings of special interest, 

 though the town can boast its fair share of the 

 eighteenth-century red-brick fronts and doorways 

 which form the chief attractions of so many country 

 places, and as usual there are a few older timber 

 buildings. The bridge over the Ivel at the north- 

 east is mediaeval, of three pointed arches, and very 

 probably the subject of Bishop Dalderby's indulgence 



4" Cart. Mon. Rames. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 136. 

 •11 Feet of F. Beds. 11 Edw. II, m. 19. 



« Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). Cf. also history 

 of Little Barford manor. 



209 



■<8 yahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 197. 

 1 Returns of the Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



27 



