Old Warden
Old Warden maps (2 available)
Map of Bedfordshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Bedfordshire
Personalised maps
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Old Warden books (5 available)
- 3 photos on Old Warden appear in 1 Frith books - View photos of Old Warden
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Old Warden and Bedfordshire
Old Warden memories
Read and share memories of Old Warden and Bedfordshire inspired by Frith photos
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You can also read memories of nearby places in Bedfordshire below.
Bedfordshire memories
Henry Tingey - Ancester
My great grandfather Henry Tingey, was born November 18, 1819, in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. He was the son of James Tingey and Elizabeth Boniss. James and Elizabeth, and family later moved from Bigglewade, Bedfordshire, and moved Lower Caldecut near the 46th milestone from London in the perish of Northhill. The family of father and mother and two boys and four sisters were in the business of raising wholesale vegatable and garden seeds and were very successful.
In 1849 the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (Mormons) told their gospel message to Henry and his wife Ann Young, (daughter of James and Lucy Young). Henry and Ann joined the Latter-Day-Saint church and migrated to America in 1849. They ...read more here
A memory of Biggleswade contributed by Norton Cook
39 Mill Lane
The gable end of the house on the left is 39 Mill Lane and Back St starts at the junction over the hill and not visible here. My father built the house about 1935 when he was about 21 years old. I grew up there until 1955 when it was sold and we moved from Clophill for a short time. We returned in 1957 and lived in the Old Police House in The Slade until I married in 1966 and brought my first home in Back St. I have traced my family's time in Clophill from about 1750 until 1980 in a new book which will shortly be available.
A memory of Clophill contributed by paul nichols
My House
This is where I live, it is no longer a village post office. It was built in 1680, and we are returning it to a residential property.
A memory of Clophill contributed by stephanie howson
I was a projectionist at the Picturedrome
I worked there for a few years with Stan Hunt at the Picturedrome, and the Plaza which was nearly opposite across the river was owned by a man called Mr Cheetam. I also worked at the Plaza as a relief projectionist and also another cinema in Ampthill owned by Mr Cheetam.
They were great days and I now live in Leicester but now see that all four cinemas in Bedford are gone, what is left?
I thought the Picturedrome and the great cinema The Granada were LISTED buildings so who had them demolished should be SHOT. These cinemas have brought great memories to a lot of people and been destroyed by Bedford Council.
Don't you think the Granada would have ...read more here
A memory of Bedford contributed by Eric Bootles
Extracts From Old Warden & Bedfordshire books
This chocolate box view has been carefully preserved by the beneficial presence of the local landowners, the Ongley and Shuttleworth families, for almost 200 years. St Leonard’s church is a 12th-century building standing on a small hill to overlook the village.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".
The village is home to both the College and the Shuttleworth Trust. The latter is dedicated to the life of the eldest son of the family who was killed in World War II, and supports the Shuttleworth Collection of road transport and aircraft housed at Old Warden Aerodrome.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".
An ornamental Swiss Garden in Old Warden Park complements the Swiss styling that was built into the village by the third Lord Ongley in the 19th century. The Swiss Garden is open to the public.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".
FEW PEOPLE would be shocked by the
idea of a national poll, conducted by Idler
magazine, discovering that Luton was Britain’s
‘crappiest town’. Luton stands out, according
to the study, because it is incredibly ugly
and has a sense of neglected isolation. Well,
beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what
is neglected isolation? Clearly there is some
kind of insinuation that Luton is not cool, it’s
not with the latest trends in ‘Cool Britannia.’
Leaders of popular culture have a stupefying
arrogance, loathing any sort of individuality;
they are able to dish out criticism, but not
to take it. Luton is about people, whatever
the buildings look like. One must admit that
modern towns are unbearably look-alike,
but none look like Luton. Maybe it is this
uniqueness that critics cannot stand. That is
not to say there are not problems here, but
these are challenging times across the globe.
No place is really isolated. As for neglected,
that is not Luton’s fault. Like so much of the
south-east, the government wants to pack
the people in, but it does not want to pay the
price in infrastructure.
The meaning of isolation in the town’s
distant past is easier to understand.
Communications were slow, and neglect
was not an issue. Folk just got on with
the business of survival. Hunter gatherers
(evidence for their presence is Worthington
Smith’s discovery of Palaeolithic flint tools
in the 19th century) made their home
250,000 years ago beside hillside lakes.
Neolithic, or New Stone Age, men arrived
from France and the Rhine, crossing the
nascent channel on rafts. They brought
cattle, seed corn and pottery.
(Robert Cook)
We are looking across Luton in its Chiltern setting from the Eaton Farm location, which became the airport.
An extract from from"Luton - A History & Celebration".
William brought with him 5,000 knights,
the new aristocracy. When he died the
country was still 90% Saxon; the Normans’
policy, like the Romans’, was ‘divide and
rule’, with the majority of England’s two
million people subject to the Norman fist.
His successor, Henry II, gave the manor of
Luton to his illegitimate son Robert, Earl of
Gloucester, and a new church was built south
of the present St Mary’s. Henry also gave land
to the monks to build a hospital and chapel
on Farley Hill. Another hospital, the House
of God of the Virgin Mary, was founded by
Thomas Beckett on a hill between the old
Vauxhall car factory and Luton Airport.
An extract from from"Luton - A History & Celebration".