Bedfordshire Old Map 1st Anniversary Gift Idea

late 17th century when the town became an important distribution point for goods up and down the Great Ouse. Cheap public school education became widely available in the late 19th century, attracting many new residents and this educational tradition is still strong today. Bedford is also synonymous with John Bunyan.

Things to see and do: See medieval architecture and visit the churches of St Paul, St Peter, St Mary and St John in Bedford. The Swan Hotel, Dame Alice Street Almshouses, High School, old Town Hall, Adelaide Square, St Cuthbert's Street, The Crescent and John Howard's statue and house are also well worth seeing. Walk along the Embankment Gardens, Bedford's treatment of its riverside is unsurpassed in England. Pick up the Pilgrim's Trail around Bedford and its surrounds. A guide to the places and museums associated with John Bunyan can be obtained from Bedford Tourist Information Centre. Visit a fully restored water mill at Bromham. Nearby is Stevington Post Mill, where harnessed wind power did all the hard work. Celebrate the past at Bedford Museum and Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and Museum. Market Days and Early Closing Days Bedford: Wednesday and Saturday Early Closing: Thursday

HISTORY OF AMPTHILL A Bedfordshire Town
Ampthill is rightly famed for its Georgian character, but the true source of its charm lies deeper than this, for a Georgian front often conceals an earlier interior, and even the Victorians have made their contribution. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the Town Clock - 20th Century electric in a late 18th century concept surmounted by an early 18th century cupola on a 19th century building. THE MARKET was for centuries crucial to the life of the town, bringing trade from the surrounding villages and generally supporting the local economy. Ampthill market has been held on a Thursday since 1219 and was confirmed by royal charter when the first of a number of annual fairs was authorised. The markets and fairs were for cattle as well as goods, and spilled along the main roads, particularly Dunstable Street, which was known as Cowfair End for a time. In the mid-1780s, Lord Upper Ossory of Ampthill Park led a campaign to improve the town centre (and increase income from the market) by creating a Market Square in front of a new Market House (now Richardson's), and tidying up the butchers' shambles, which ran from the Market House and into the Oxlet. . Church Street, Ampthill (The butchers had been particularly unpopular in the 15th century when they were always throwing rotting offal into the town pond, the Oxflood). A new well was sunk on the Market Square and a pump installed encased in a stone obelisk (the gift of Lord Ossory) and surmounted by an oil lamp. The town clock, formerly on the old market house, was set in a new turret surmounted by a cupola, and placed on the 15th century Moot HallL where the manor court met. The Moot Hall (similar to that at Elstow) was pulled down in 1852, and the town clock moved to present Clock House, which replaced it. From the Market Square two of the town's former coaching inns can be see: the White Hart, a front of about 1730 on a very much older building once known as the Red Hart, remains in business. The King's Arms, formerly the Crown, now 9 Church Street, has an 18th century front, but is similarly much older; it closed in the 1950s when the ground floor was converted into shops. In the Kings Arms Yard are ancient buildings used in the 17th century to house needy people at the expense of the parish. It is thought that the roundel of pargetting with crown, fleur-de-lis, the dated 1677 and initials W.H commemorates this use - the initials standing for Work House. The path leads on to the newer parts of the town passing The Hop Ground, formerly belonging to the White Hart, but now after a century and more of neglect a remarkable garden created from 1967 by William Nourish, and since his death maintained for the Town Council by a group of volunteers. The garden is open to the public from time to time. CHURCH STREET, leading off from the Market Square in the direction of Maulden contains many interesting buildings most notably Avenue House (number 20) formerly the home of Professor Sir Albert Richardson, KCVO, one-time President of the Royal Academy, whose love for the Georgian period is legendary and was reflected in his work as an architect. 'The Professor' died in 1964, and plaque on the wall of his former home carried a tribute from his old friend John Betjeman, 'He strove to preserve the best in English landscape and buildings .....' The house was built for John Morris, a brewer, to the design, it is thought, of John Wing the Bedford architect, in 1790, the easternmost section having been added in 1819. The house takes its name from a lime walk in the garden. On the opposite side of the road is the Ampthill Masonic Centre built in the early 1860s as a Court House, the architect being Sir John Taylor, KCB. In 1961 James Hanratty was brought before the magistrates here accused of the murder of Michael Gregson in a lay-by off the A6 at Clophill, a crime for which he was ultimately hanged in the last judicial hanging in this country. The courts moved to new premises in Woburn Street in 1963. Next door, now divided into four, as a fine Jacobean House once the home of Edmund Wingate (1596-1656) mathematician and legal writer and reputedly the inventor of the slide rule. For a time he had lived in Paris where he taught Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, to speak the English language; but his later sympathies were very much with the parliamentary cause. A later owner and resident was George Wateson, born in Ampthill and for a time Rector of Millbrook. But he was deprived of the Living for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary on the grounds that to do this would break the oath he had already taken to James II. (There were over 400 good and saintly clergy who were similarly deprived for conscience's sake at that time: they are known as Nonjurors). On the opposite side of the road is Gates House (number 28) built in about 1807 and distinguished by a fine wrought iron screen and entrance gates thought to have been those made for Park House by the local blacksmith Jasper Grimes and designed by John Lumley, in the early 1700s. At the brow f the hill is THE Wingfield Club, opened as a United Services Club by the Princess Beatrice in 1921. The house, built in 1742 by Catherine Coppin, was for a time the home of the Revd Charles Cavendish Bentinck, one-time Rector of Ridgmont, and his wife Sinetta. For some years they had rented the house now 41 Church Street, but moved here in 1848. Two years later Mrs Bentinck died, and shortly her husband married again, the eldest daughter of that marriage eventually becoming Countess of Strathmore, mother of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Modern housing developments to the east and south of Church Street occupy what was formerly the estate of Sir Anthony Wingfield (1857-1952). Ampthill House, which stood where the eastern section of Brinsmade Road is now, had been built in 1829, but was considerably enlarged by Mr Wingfield (as he was then) to provide accommodation for the large number of visitors he entertained. His private zoo was a great attraction, stately Edwardian ladies and distinguished gentlemen (including minor and foreign royalty; were pleased to be photographed on the most unlikely mounts, while camels, bison, pigs, ostriches and llamas roamed the estate freely, and were made to work where possible. Many of the animals were transferred to Whipsnade when that zoo opened, and all had long gone when following Sir Anthony's death, the house was pulled down and its parkland built upon. The Cloisters is a more recent development on the Ampthill House estate and marks the site of a modest 17th century mansion reputedly built for Ampthill's most famous son, Richard Nicolls (although documentary evidence for this legend has not - as yet - been found). Nicolls was born in 1625 at Great Lodge in Ampthill Park where his father was a keeper, and early in life entered the royal service. He followed the royal family into exile on the continent after the execution of Charles I and became a friend of his son, James Duke of York (afterwards James II). After the restoration Richard Nicolls was sent as senior of three commissioners with a small supporting force, to recover the North American territories from the Dutch. In 1664 he received the surrender of Nieuw Amsterdam which he renamed New York, after the Duke of York, and here he remained for a while as Governor. Having retired to Ampthill, he was called to attend James, then Lord High Admiral, at the battle of Sole Bay (Southwold) in 1672. Mortally wounded by a Dutch cannon ball, his body was brought back to Ampthill for burial, the fatal cannon ball being incorporated into his memorial in the parish church. The Parish Church, dedicated in honour of Saint Andrew, in its present form dates from 14th and 15th centuries with 19th and 20th century additions; but there was a church on the same site in Norman times, and perhaps earlier. A comprehensive guide book is available at the church. CHURCH SQUARE has on its east side Brandreth House, now two, built for Thomas Gibbs in about 1810. He was a noted seedsman to the Board of Agriculture for whom we did much experimental work on grasses, and married Sarah Brandreth of Houghton Regis, hence the house's name. Adjoining are the Feoffee Almshouses, maintained still by feoffees (trustees) using the income from charitable endowments made by townsfolk in earlier centuries. The almshouses were established before 1485, and those on the left of the gateway may be of even earlier date; but the houses which border the churchyard and the one to the right of the gateway were built in the 19th century. On the west side of Church Square the imposing three-storey Dynevor House has the initials S.V and the date 1725 on the rainwater heads. S.V. was Sir Simon Urlin, Recorder of the City of London from 1742 to 1746, who had the house refronted and remodelled at that time. . . . . RECTORY LANE leads from west of the church tower by footpath to either Houghton Conquest (following the churchyard boundary) or Bedford Road, which is reached by the Holly Walk, a path made in the early 1820s as a short cut from the church to Park House. A short way along the Maulden Road, on the north side, is Gas House Lane, a reminder that the town's gas works was built here in 1849. This was formerly South Gate Walk, the principal approach to Houghton House, home of the Bruce family whose head was the Earl of Ailesbury. . . . Feoffee Almshouses, Amphill Their 17th century walled garden and orchard can be seen ahead. The large new housing estate leading off from the roundabout in the Maulden Road is reached by Ailesbury Road (on the side of Cut Throat Lane!). The roads of this development bear the names of many worthy families from Ampthill's history. . . . BEDFORD STREET is the most changed of all the town's four main roads, having been considerably restricted on its eastern side until the late 1930s by the buildings of Ampthill Brewery which had been established by John Morris in the 1770s, flourished a century under family management, and retained the Morris name until its closure in 1926, when the business was taken over by J.W. Green of Luton. Ampthill Brewery was among the largest in the county and its loss was a significant one for the town. Nothing remains of the buildings, except a vaulted store - now a restaurant - and a few walls around the car park. The market was moved here from Market Square in 1987. The first building to be put up on the brewery site was a cinema, The Zonita, which opened in 1937 and closed in 1960 - a brief but colourful existence. Converted into office buildings, the Zonita became a snooker hall in 1982, and later its ground floor was made into small shops named Rose Walk. Further up Bedford Street and now used as a garage, is the former National . Holly Walk School, one of the town's two main schools. Supported by the parish church, this school opened in 1845 and closed 1954 when the local authority took responsibility for education in the town. The Bedford Road continues to the top of the hill where it becomes Hazelwood Lane. Here, a sign points the way to Houghton House, a magnificently sited Jacobean mansion built by Mary, Countess of Pembroke, in about 1615. Dismantled in 1794, the house has been a ruin for many years, but from what remains and from old records and pictures it can be seen that this was a building of considerable distinction with impressive porticos at the north and west fronts and corner towers surmounted by concave pinacles with gilded finials. From 1620 until 1738 it was the home of the Bruces, Earls of Ailesbury, prominent in local life and at court where they held high office. The last Lord Ailesbury to live here was Thomas, a supporter and friend of James II and consequently under constant suspicion following that monarch's departure in 1688. Eventually the situation became intolerable, and he was forced to retire to the continent where he lived at Brussels until his death at the age of 85 in 1741. Francis, Marquess of Tavistock, came to live here shortly before his marriage to Lady Elizabeth Keppel, but in 1767 he was killed in a riding accident in Houghton Park, and within a year his widow had died too, 'of a broken heart'. The Duke of Bedford who had bought the estate in 1738, wished to farm the land but had difficulty in finding tenants for the house, and so after a while it was dismantled. Houghton House DUNSTABLE STREET, though victim of too much traffic, has some historic and distinctive features. Number 105 was in the late 18th and early 19th centuries the home of the Royal School of Embroidering Females who, under the patronage of Queen Charlotte, made many of the complex and lavish hangings used in the refurbishing of Windsor Castle in hand at that time. On the opposite side of the road The Gazebo is all that remains of an extensive mid-18th century estate which stretched from the road the site of the Alameda where there was an artificial 'Canal' to give focal point to the garden. The house, which belonged to this estate, stood at the edge of the footpath where numbers 84 and 86 now stand. In 1882 the canal estate was developed, the house pulled down and replaced by two villas built adjoining their new chapel by the Methodist trustees. The imposing Methodist Church was designed by Charles Bell of London and opened on 13th August 1884, replacing an earlier building in Woburn Street. The Baptist Church further along the road, was built on a site acquired in 1822 and stood back from the pavement. Extensions in 1870 brought the buildings forward by creating a vestibule, and in 1893 accommodation was doubled by the erection of an adjoining Sunday School room and vestry. The Primitive Methodists opened a chapel in Saunder's Piece in 1871; after a spell as 'The Kinema', it was from 1949 to 1994 a branch of the County Library. Empty for a couple of years it is now the home of S. Luke's Church, part of the newly formed Traditional Anglican Church. The Strict Baptists built a new chapel in Oliver Street in 1904; it was designed by the Ampthill architect Alfred Wildman, and opened on 11th October that year. AMPTHILL HALL began existence as a barn belonging to Christopher Bennell where the Quakers started holding meetings in 1726. Rebuilt from the old materials on the same site in 1753, it was extended to its present size in 1768, and continued in use as a meeting house until the early 1900s. For many years it served as Saint Andrew's Church hall, but was purchased by the Council in the 1970s for conversion to public use. The front section of the hall is a 19th century addition. Quaker meetings were resumed here in 1990. A sign on the dentist's wall at the top of Oliver Street points 'To the Foundry'. This was the Sand Road Iron Works (Oliver Street then being called Sand Road) built in the early 1870s by William Whitehouse on the corner of this road with Neotsbury Road (formerly Foundry Lane). The foundry made chiefly agricultural equipment and domestic ironwork, notably railings. Alfred Hetley, Mr Whitehouse's successor, continued the business until the early 1920s. After military use in the war the buildings were occupied by Jewsons, but demolished in the 1970s when the present houses were built. The Mid Bedfordshire District Council's Offices in Dunstable Street were built for the Ampthill Rural District Council to designs by Sir Albert Richardson and opened in 1967. Subsequently, the offices have been modified and considerably extended. THE CEDARS was built as the Union Workhouse in 1836, the architect being James Clephane, whose other work includes Wrest Park House. The workhouse was built to accommodate 469 inmates from Ampthill and the surrounding parishes, which formed the Union, and operated under a regime of the strictest discipline and segregation. Consequently there was a great dread of 'going to the Union' which was only slightly alleviated by new legislation of 1929 which made this the Public Assistance Institution. But all that became history when, in the late 1940s, the building re-named The Cedars began valuable community service as a Local Authority old people's home, closed in the early 1990s. At the time of writing (1997) plans are in hand to convert it into luxury apartments. The former Board Room, built for the Poor Law Guardians in 1902, is now the town's library. Particularly noteworthy is its modern weather vane commemorating the Gold Hare (Masquerade) treasure hunt - a story worth investigating in the library. Station Road once led to Ampthill Station, but the latter (opened in 1868) was closed in 1959 and its site, cut off from Station Road by the bypass is now a part of the industrial estate. It is interesting that the World Speed Record was held from 1897 to 1903 by a Midland Railway train sustaining a speed of 90 m.p.h over 2.36 miles of track here. Close by the station, once very isolated amongst the trees of Little Park, is the Ampthill Hopspital, as it was originally known. These almshouses, built in 1701 under the directions of the will of John Cross of Oxford, were to accommodate old college servants. In more recent years a wider range of resident has been accommodated, and the flats are now administered by Church Army Housing. There are two Schools in Station Road, The Firs, and Alameda, built in the early 1970s as a primary and middle school respectively. Redbourne School, on the extreme boundary of the town at Running Waters, opened as the Ampthill/Flitwick Secondary Modern School in 1954. . Brewery Lane It takes its name from the ancient administrative area of the shire, which included both Ampthill and Flitwick, the Hundred of Redbornestoke. WOBURN STREET was once known as Mill Street, the local rope makers having a horse-powered mill here at one time. Beneath the great, empty wrought-iron sign bracket (numbers 1 &3), is another of the town's coaching inns, formerly the Kings Head, previously the Swan, refronted in about 1734 and since 1948 used as offices. Behind number 6 was a workhouse, built in 1729 and in operation until 1795. John Wills, who was in charge in 1772, was allowed £230 a year out of the rates for bedding, clothing and food for the inmates - quite a sum. A successor workhouse, the House of Industry, was built in 1811 on Park Hill (where the wooden houses stand0 and was the scene of serious rioting in May, 1835, when new poor law regulations were brought into force. The rioting, which had started in Lidlington and Millbrook when payments previously made were withheld, moved to the Market Square and continued until police were brought from London (no Bedfordshire force in those days) and the militia called out and held in readiness at Luton. By the late 18th century the upper parts of Woburn Street were known as Slutts End. Even so, the Methodists were happy to build a chapel behind what is now number 29, in 1813. It was an imposing building with an interior compared by one who knew it to the hatchway of a ship. 470 worshippers could be accommodated in an incredibly restricted building. Opposite the old chapel, which was pulled down soon after its congregation moved to their new building in Dunstable Street in 1884, is Claridge's Lane, formerly Rope Walk (doubtless where the horse mill was), and named after George Claridge, a grocer whose shop and house was on the corner of Dunstable Street and Woburn Street. So on to the thatched Ossory Cottages, much admired and photographed, which were built for his estate workers by Lord Ossory in the early 19th century and bear his plaque and the date. The other cottages in this group are older, and all have been extensively restored and modernised. Across the road are The Sands, once an open space as its name suggest, and the playground of the school which was consequently unofficially known as the Sands School. Built as the British School and opened for children associated with the town's chapels in 1844, it became the Wesleyan School in the 1890s and after 1954, Ampthill county Primary (subsequently, in new premises, Russell School). The building is now a restaurant.

ABOUT BEDFORDSHIRE TODAY
With its southern borders only 30 miles from London, the county of Bedfordshire is the gateway to the Midlands and East Anglia. Set in a rich rural landscape, the county is an attractive place to live, work and visit. Overall, Bedfordshire has a population of about 560,000. Bedfordshire County Council provides services for a population of about 380,000 with a fifth living in the historic county town of Bedford, which lies on the River Great Ouse. In 1997 Bedfordshire's largest town, Luton, became a unitary local authority. There are many areas of outstanding natural beauty and attractions, which include stately homes and gardens, woodland walks and nature reserves, country parks and world-famous animal parks. The county enjoys excellent transport links to London, the north and beyond.

THE TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF BEDFORDSHIRE - LET US HAVE YOUR LINK!