A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



as the ' Sand Pits,' otherwise ' The Pest House 

 Pieces,' let for /l 12s. 6d. a year. 



By a scheme of the Charity Commissioners, dated 

 6 September, 1 904, the trustees are authorized to let 

 the recreation ground to the parish council, who pay 

 £j a year for the user thereof. 



There is also a house and premises, together with 

 3 acres of land, in the occupation of the parish clerk. 



In 1877 Samuel Emery Barnes, by will, gave 

 j^6oo to be invested, and the income to be divided 

 into six equal portions yearly on I January among 

 six poor aged and infirm persons who had resided 



during five preceding years in the parish irrespective 

 of religious belief. The legacy (less duty) was in- 

 vested in ;^548 4/. 6d. consols, and the annual divi- 

 dends, amounting to j£l3 14^. are applied by the 

 vicar and churchwardens in accordance with the trusts. 

 In 1885 Miss Catherine Payne by will left £zoo 

 to the minister and churchwardens, the annual in- 

 come to be distributed on 2 1 February in every year 

 among the poor of the parish. The legacy is repre- 

 sented by X^°° ^^'- consols, the annual dividends 

 amounting to jf5 o/. \d., are distributed in sums 

 of 5/. to each recipient. 



SANDY WITH GIRTFORD 



Sandeia (xi cent.); Saundeye, Sondeye (xiii to xvi 

 cents.). 



The parish of Sandy covers an area of 4,276 acres, 

 of which 2,261 are arable, 781 permanent grass, 

 and 552 woods and plantations.' It includes, besides 

 the village of Sandy itself, the hamlets of Girtford 

 and Beeston, the latter of which is in Wixamtree 

 Hundred. Sandy has a station on the mam line of 

 the Great Northern Railway, which is here inter- 

 sected by the Cambridge and Bedford Branch of the 

 London and North Western Railway. The general 

 slope of the land is from south-east to north-west. 

 The road from Potton to Bedford on its way through 

 Sandy rises to 220 ft. above the ordnance datum in the 

 south, whilst the lowest point in the north is 72 ft. 

 The River Ivel flows through the south-west of the 

 parish. The main road is that leading from Potton 

 to Bedford ; another road from Everton in the north- 

 east passes through the parish, the centre of which 

 is a thickly-wooded district known as Sandy Warren. 

 The town lies in the west of the parish, and consists 

 mainly of four streets radiating from the market-place, 

 High Street, in a south-easterly direction, the Cam- 

 bridge Road in an easterly, and the St. Neots and 

 Bedford Roads respectively in a north-westerly and 

 westerly direction. 



There are a number of eighteenth-century brick 

 houses in the town, but none of much interest, and a 

 good-many half timber and lath and plaster houses, some 

 of which are thatched. The church stands in a large 

 churchyard, bounded on the east by the High Street, 

 and the rectory, south of the church, is a fine early 

 eighteenth -century red-brick house — its date is given as 

 1729 — with sash windows retaining for the most part 

 the original heavy sashbars. It has a forecourt on the 

 east, and a walled garden on the west, with excellent 

 brickwork details. At some distance to the west of it 

 IS Sandy Place, a house of much the same period, 

 though built on the site of an oldfir house. It stands 

 well, facing the south, on slightly rising ground, and 

 belonged till recently to Sir Robert Pearce Edgcumbe, 

 who sold it to its present holder, Mr. Walter Graves. 



The hamlet of Girtford is situated at the junc- 

 tion of the St. Neots Road with the Great North 

 Road, and other small hamlets are Seddington, on 

 the Great North Road, two miles south of the 



town, and Stratford, about one mile to the south. 

 That of Beeston is on the road to Biggleswade 

 about one mile from Sandy ; neither has any par- 

 ticular architectural interest, though there is a record 

 of a ' chantry with Bell Turret and Chancel,' built at 

 the latter about 1 304 ; '* of this there appear to be 

 no remains. 



There is a modern town hall, a national and a 

 council school, a modern Baptist church, 1887, an 

 older Baptist chapel of 1854, now used as a Sunday 

 school, a mission church, 1866, and a Primitive 

 Methodist chapel, 1868, at Girtford; and a Wesleyan 

 chapel of 1865 at Beeston. 



The Great Northern main line and the Cambridge 

 and Bedford branch of the North Western Railway 

 have stations here. 



The eastern part of the parish includes the wooded 

 sandy hills from which its name is derived, the town 

 being separated from them by the railway, which cuts 

 through their lower slopes. On the high ground 

 stand 'The Lodge,' a modem house (1877), about a 

 mile and a half south-east of the village, the seat of 

 Viscount Peel ; ' Caesar's Camp,' also modern, the 

 seat of Captain C. Guy Pym ; and ' The Hasells,' an 

 old house, said to have been built about 1660, and 

 enlarged in the time of George II, belonging to 

 Mr. Francis Pym. 



Sandy was inclosed by Act of Parliament in 1798, 

 when the Stone Quarry was allotted to Sir Philip 

 Monoux.' 



Ancient British coins of gold, copper, and brass 

 have been discovered at Girtford and Sandy,' and 

 also neolithic remains.* An Anglo-Saxon cinerary 

 urn of remarkable size and a bronze bowl of the same 

 period have been found near Caesar's Camp,' which 

 was a Roman site.' Galley Hill Camp, on a height 

 covered with well-grown firs about three quarters of a 

 mile south from Caesar's Camp in the grounds of 

 Lord Peel, is another example of an ancient earth- 

 work.' Sandy Place is an instance of a manorial hold 

 with a mound, on which the house stands, and has 

 remains of fishponds near the River Ivel.' 



The following place-names have been found in 

 Sandy : Hawes, Awstrettfield, Hynwickfield, Pression 

 Balke,' in the seventeenth century, and Hyggons in 

 the sixteenth." 



1 Returns of Bd. of Agric. 1905. » y.C.H. Bedt, 



•» Line. Epis. Reg. Dalderby, fol. yod. ■> Ibid. 166. 



71 d. ; ibid. Burghersh, fol. zj d. ' Ibid. 184 



"Acts Priv. and Local, 38 Geo. Ill, ^ See above, p. 



cap. 47. 7 y.C.H. Beds. 



173. 



1, 271. 

 242 



' Ibid. 300. 



' Add. Chart. looo j Chan. Inq. p.in 

 (Ser. 2), dxxxvi, No. 71. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Ixxxiv, 



No. 2. 



