A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



CADDINGTON 



Cadendone (xii cent.) ; Kateden (xiii cent.) ; Kad- 

 ington (xiv cent.) ; Cadyndone (xv cent.) ; Cadenton 

 (xvii cent.). 



The parish of Caddington was formerly partly in 

 Hertfordshire and partly in Bedfordshire, but under 

 the provisions of the Local Government Act of 1888, 

 confirmed in 1897, it was transferred wholly to 

 Bedfordshire. In 1877 Markyate was formed into a 

 new ecclesiastical district,' and by Local Government 

 Act of 1888, confirmed in 1897, into a parish. It 

 lies to the south-east of Caddington, comprising a 

 portion of the parish of Flamstead, part of Cadding- 

 ton, the detached hamlet of Humbershoe in the 

 parish of Studham, and a detached portion of Hough- 

 ton Regis.' 



Caddington is a portion of bare table land with an 

 average height of about 5 50 ft., the edge of which drops 

 gradually to the parish of Luton on the east. The 

 area of the parish, which was inclosed in 1800,' 

 was formerly 4,500 acres, but some 2,000 acres 

 were withdrawn when the parish of Markyate was 

 formed. In 1905 the parish of Caddington com- 

 prised 2,691 acres of arable, 852 acres of per- 

 manent grass, and 56 acres of woodland, and that 

 of Markyate 874 acres of arable, 283 acres of per- 

 manent grass, and 60 acres of woodland.' The soil 

 is clay with flints, and the subsoil chalk, and the 

 chief crops are wheat, barley, beans, and turnips. 



The Watling Street, which is here the main road 

 from Saint Albans to Dunstable, forms the boundary 

 between Kensworth and Caddington ; a road from 

 Luton passes through Slip End and joins the Watling 

 Street at Markyate, and there is also a road running 

 north-west from Caddington village which meets the 

 Icknield Way a little to the east of Dunstable. 



The church and vicarage and most of the cottages 

 are grouped round a green on which are a few pollard 

 trees. The village is in the middle of the parish, 

 and there are four hamlets." In the north at the 

 highest point is that of Chaul End, which con- 

 sists of one new farm-house and a few cottages. In 

 the extreme south is * the uninteresting but growing 

 district called Slip End, with a population of about 

 800 people. This hamlet was endowed as a per- 

 petual curacy a few years ago by the dean and 

 chapter of St. Paul's and a house of residence built. 

 The other two hamlets, Woodside and Aley Green, 

 at which there is a cemetery, are to the north and 

 west of Slip End. 



The entire population is employed in agriculture 

 and in working on two large brick-fields in this parish. 

 The women do a little straw-hat making. 



At Markyate Street the surface of the land is fairly 

 uniform, rising to the west. The River Ver rises in 

 the parish and runs near the Watling Street. The 



church stands in the park of Markyate Cell at one 

 end of the village, which consists of long rows of 

 small houses built close to the Watling Street on 

 either side. 



There is no railway station within the parish, but 

 the Luton and Dunstable branch of the Great 

 Northern Railway has a station at Church Street, just 

 beyond the boundary, and there are stations at Luton 

 on the same line and on the Midland Railway, two 

 miles west from Caddington village. 



The following place-names occur in Court Rolls 

 of the manor and elsewhere : Haireway, Le Lake, 

 Whisegrove, Puttangrenewey, le Wassyngpute, Sal- 

 weycroft, Waudeneshill, Castellcroft, Phipittewey, 

 Stonardesdene, le Shiremarc, Dameglynelane, Hey- 

 wardes Grene, Fellendenswaye, Gosemereweye, Pul- 

 lingslane, Houghton Woodway, and Thefewey. 

 Interesting discoveries of palaeolithic implements have 

 been made in the neighbourhood of Caddington, and 

 British hut floors have been unearthed at Buncers 

 Farm.' It is said that on high ground half a mile to 

 the south of the church there was once an ancient 

 camp. Pottery and other relics have been found 

 there, but now the site of the camp is a ploughed 

 field, and the only evidence of its existence is in the 

 names of two grass roads near, which are called Upper 

 Camp and Lower Camp Lane respectively. 



Thomas Pickford, the founder of the well-known 

 firm of carriers, resided at Markyate in the farm-house 

 called Mayfield, now occupied by Mrs. Partridge. The 

 name still survives in the locality, Mayfield being 

 situated in Pickford Road. The ' Old Vicarage,' now 

 occupied by Mrs. Fatt, was formerly a boarding 

 school. It was here that the poet William Cowper 

 received the first elements of his classical education. 

 ' Coppin's Room ' adjoining the old vicarage was used 

 as the schoolroom at that time, and it is now the 

 Parish Room. 



The manor of CADDINGTON was 

 MjiNORS ancient demesne of the crown.' There 

 is some evidence that it was granted to 

 the monastery of St. Albans by Offa, king of Mercia 

 (757-96),' but apparently no record exists of its sub- 

 sequent history until the time of Edward the Con- 

 fessor, when it seems to have been held by Edwin of 

 Caddington,'" and to have passed from him to his son 

 Lewin." From the Domesday entry Lewin appears 

 to have given it to the canons of St. Paul's, London," 

 in whose possession it remained until 1 649, when it 

 was sold, under the ' Act for the sale of dean and 

 chapter's lands,' to Henry Proby of London, and 

 John Hammond of the same, draper.'' At the Restora- 

 tion the property returned to the canons, for whom it 

 has been held, since 1872,'* by the Ecclesiastical 

 Commissioners. 



^ Census of England and ff^aUs, 1901, 

 Hern. 6. ' Ihii. Beds. 17. 



® Commons Inclosure Awards^ 3. 



* From information supplied by the 

 Board of Agriculture. 



* Census of England and ffales (1901) 

 Beds. 14, 



' Woodside and Slip End were formed 

 into the ecclesiastical parish of Woodside 

 St. Andrew in 1892. Ibid. 5. 



' y.C.H, Herts, i, 225, 226 j and ibid. 

 Beds, i, 174. 



' Assize R. 6 Edw. I, No. 323. 



• Cott. MS. Nero, D. 7, fol. 3A 5 Dug- 

 dale, JWob. Angl. ii, 217 J Gest. Ahhat. 

 (Rolls Ser.) i, 507. 



l» y.CM. Herts, i, 281. Dugdale, fol- 

 lowed by Clutterbuck and Chauacy, states 

 in hit history of St. Paul's that this 

 manor was granted to the dean and chap- 



ter by Athelstan, but this would appear to 

 be a mistake, as no mention of Cadding- 

 ton occurs in Athelstan's charter as printed 

 in Dugdale's Appendix. 



^ Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), 

 vi, 33- 



^^y.CH. Herts. \,ii6h. 



" Close, 1649, pt. 52, No. 23. 



'< Lond. Gaz. 9 Aug. 1872, p. 3587. 



