SG Heritage Dictionary

Bedford Encyclopedia Britannica

BEDFORD, the county town of Bedfordshire, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town, situated in u fertile vale on both sides of the River Ouse, which is here crossed by a handsome stone bridge of five arches. It iβ 50 miles N.W. of London, and has excellent railway accommodation as well as a navigable river. It is a station on the main line of the Midland Railway. The town consists chiefly of one long wide street, intersected by smaller ones at right angles. It is well built, and numerous villas and small streets have been erected on the west side since the opening of the Midland main line in 1868. It has five parish churches, four of which contain architectural features.of interest. St Paul’s has lately undergone considerable restoration, and the tower and spire have been rebuilt. St Peter’s has been enlarged, but the ancient tower remains, in which are to be seen examples of Saxon work. St Mary’s has a fine Norman tower, but the remainder of the church has at different times been restored. St John’s has also been restored, but the original tower remains. St Cuthbert’s is a recent erection in the Norman style. A district church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was opened in 1841. There are also Independent, Methodist, Baptist, Roman Catholic, and other chapels. Bedford, in proportion to its size, has more public endowments than any other place in the kingdom, for which it is chiefly indebted to Sir W. Harper, Lord Mayor of London in 1561, who founded here a free school, and conveyed for its support, and for portioning poor maidens, a piece of ground in London, the surplus, if any, to be given to the poor. This ground has gradually risen in value so as now to produce nearly £14,000 annually. It' supports grammar, modern, preparatory, and other ...

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3, p. 482
[519 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]

Bedford level Encyclopedia Britannica

BEDFORD LEVEL, the name given to a flat district on the eastern coast of England, comprising the greater part (amounting to 450,000 acres) of the marshy district called the Fens, the whole Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire, and a portion of the north of that county, 30,000 acres of Suffolk, 63,000 acres of Norfolk, 57,000 of Huntingdon, about 8000 of Northamptonshire, and the south-eastern portion of Lincolnshire. The extent of the whole tract is 60 miles in length, from Milton in Cambridge to Toynton in Lincoln; its breadth is about 40 miles, from Peterborough in Northampton to Brandon in Suffolk. The boundary on three sides is irregular, giving it something of a horse-shoe shape, with the opening terminated by the sea on the north....

Tlιis district obtained its present name from the agreement of Francis earl of Bedford, the principal landholder, and thirteen other adventurers, with Charles 1. in 1634, to drain the level, on condition of receiving 95,000 acres of the reclaimed land. The district has within historic times undergone remarkable changes. In the time of the Romans it was a dense forest, which, as a stronghold of the Britons, those invaders destroyed. It then became a swamp, through which the lazy waters of the Ouse, the Welland, the Nene, and Wisbeach, crept to the sea. In the 13th century the sea here, as in other parts of N.W. Europe, burst its boundaries, and the inundated land became a pestilential swamp. The first attempt to drain this morass seems to have been made in the year 1436, and embankments and ditches were formed at a great expense. These, however, were swept away during the ensuing winter by the flooding of the River Ouse. Another partial attempt at drainage was made by Bishop Moreton in the reign of Henry VII., but this also proved a failure. An Act was passed in the 44th year of Queen Elizabeth for effecting its reclamation; but the first effectual attempt at reclaiming it was not made until 1634, as already mentioned, and many embankments and canals were constructed at various intervals at an expense above one million sterling. Three years after the agreement of the earl of Bedford and his partners with the king, after an outlay of £100,000 on the part of the company, the contract was annulled, on the fraudulent plea that the works were insufficient; and an offer was made by King Charles to undertake its completion on condition of receiving 57,000 acres in addition to the amount originally agreed on. This unjust attempt was frustrated by the breaking out of the civil war; and no further attempt at drainage was made till 1649, when the Parliament reinstated the earl of Bedford’s successor in his father’s rights. After an additional outlay of £300,000, the adventurers received 95,000 acres of reclaimed land, according to the contract, which, however, fell far short of repaying the expense of the undertaking. In 1664 a royal charter was obtained to incorporate the company, which still exists, and carries on the concern under a governor, 6 bailiffs, 20 conservators, and a commonalty, each of whom must possess 100 acres of land in the level, and has a voice in the election of officers. The conservators must each possess not less than 280 acres, the governor and bailiffs each 400 acres. The original adventurers had allotments of land according to their interest of the original 95,000 acres; but Charles II., on granting the charter, took care to secure to the crown a lot of 12,000 acres out of the 95,000, which, however, is held under the directors, whereas the allotments are not held in common, though subject to the laws of the corporation. The level was divided in 1697 into three parts, called the North, Middle, and South Levels—the second being separated from the others by the Nene and Old Bedford rivers.

Since then extensive works have at different times been carried on to complete the drainage of this district; but the most effectual are under the Acts of 1827 and 1829, for “Improving the outfall of the Nene,” “The Navigation of the Wisbeach,” and “The Embanking of the Salt Marshes between the canal called Kinderley Cut and the sea.” Vessels of 200 to 300 tons burden can now come up to the town of Wisbeach at all tides, and those of from 500 to 600 tons at spring tides. The draining of the lower lands, which, like the Dutch Polders, are below low-water mark, was carried on by windmills, but these have now been almost superseded by steam-engines; in the North Level the drainage is effected by sluices. As the result of these extensive operations, the level now abounds in rich pasture and corn lands.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3, p. 482
[809 words — estimated reading time: 5 minutes]

Bedfordshire Encyclopedia Britannica

BEDFORDSHIRE, one of the south midland counties of England, surrounded by the counties of Buckingham, Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Hertford. It is the fourth smallest county, containing only 295,509 acres or 461 square miles. Its extreme length from north to south is about 47 miles, and its width 21 miles. The great Ouse, which flows through the county eastward, is navigable from Bedford to the sea at King’s Lynn. The Midland and Great Northern Railways intersect the county, also the Bletchley and Cambridge branch of the London and North-Western. The surface of the county is for the most part level, but the northern half is undulating, with a subsoil generally of boulder-clay and Oxford-clay. A fine tract of land south of Bedford is bounded by a range of lower-greensand running east and west, presenting beautiful woodland scenery, parallel to which, along the Hertfordshire border, the Chiltern chalk range rises to 500 feet above the sea-level and 400 feet above the level of Bedford. The county is generally devoted to corn-growing, but the Ouse valley has a large breadth of rich pasturage, and all along the west side of the Great Northern railway is a sandy loam, on which onions, potatoes, and market produce are grown. Agricultural implement and other engineering works employ about 1000 hands at Bedford and Luton; while the female industry of the county is pillow-lace, and in the south straw-plait. The plait is made up, chiefly at Dunstable and Luton, into hats and bonnets, which are exported to all parts of the world. Luton is the most populous town in the county, slightly exceeding the county town of Bedford. The county rate assessment is .£585,840. and the expenditure in 1873 was £1 1,802. The county belongs to the diocese of Ely, and coincides with the ...

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3, p. 483
[908 words — estimated reading time: 6 minutes]