'BEDFORD AND DISTRICT': this website forms part
of the 'Travelling Days' series and contains
recent and past pictures of Bedford in England.
Various places outside the borough up to a
distance of fifteen miles from it also form a
substatial part of the site. To return to the
home page please click on the link in the black
menu bar at the top of the page.
TEMPSFORD lies about eight miles to the east of
Bedford and close to the A1 highway from London
to the North. Samuel Lewis in 1831 wrote this
description of the village in his Topographical
Dictionary of England:
'Tempsford: a parish in the hundred of
Biggleswade, county of Bedford, 6½ miles
(N.N.W.) from Biggleswade, containing 577
inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the
archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Lincoln,
rated in the kings's books at £24, and in
the patronage of the Crown. The church is
dedicated to St. Peter. There is a place of
worship for Wesleyan Methodists.
The village is situated on the River Ivel, which
is navigable through the parish, and falls into
the Ouse as it passes along the western boundary.
This is a place of great antiquity; it was
occupied by the Danes before 921, when they were
expelled by the Saxons, but they returned in
1010, and reduced it to ashes.'
And a more modern description:
'Robert De Carun, in the year
1129, gave the church to the Prior and Convent of
St. Neots, on account of his grandson Anselm
taking the monastic habit there. The Danes
visited Tempsford in 1010, it then being a walled
town; and it is surmised that the first church
was destroyed at that time. Near the rectory is
an ancient earthwork, called the "Gannocks,"
believed to be of Roman origin; the moat around
is still perfect, and there is a subterranean
passage from it to the hall of the rectory.
'Tempsford Hall, the property of Major Wm.
Dugald Stuart J.P. has been rebuilt, and is a
mansion of red brick and Dumfries stone, but some
portion of the original building still exists :
it stands in the midst of spacious grounds about
100 acres in extent, and is surrounded by many
noble trees.'
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About two miles to the south-east of Tempsford
lies the village of Everton. The village is also
a mile and a half north east of Sandy and a mile
north west of Potton. It lies on the highest
point of the famous Greensand Ridge with views to
the Royston Downs in the east and, to the west,
over the Ivel Valley. At about two hundred feet
above sea level it boasts the highest pub in
Bedfordshire! The three pictures here (to the
right and below) are of the Everton Village
Church.
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