Chicksands
General History
Kelly's Directory 1903

Places > Chicksands > General History

CHICKSANDS (or Chicksands Priory) (formerly extra-parochial) is now a parish, one mile and a half north-west from Shefford station on the Bedford and Hitchin branch of the Midland railway and 40 miles. from London by rail, in the Northern division of the county, petty sessional division, hundred, union and county court district of Biggleswade.

The parish is ecclesiastically annexed to Campton. The Priory, the seat of Sir Algernon Kerr Butler Osborn Bart. J.P. pleasantly seated on a gentle declivity in well-wooded park of 1,353 acres, consists in part of the original buildings of the ancient Gilbertine priory founded here by Payne and Roise Beauchamp, about 1150; the south and east fronts were rebuilt by Wyatt towards the end of the last century, but the whole retains much of the monastic appearance, and the double cloisters on the south and west sides of the quadrangle through which the Canons and Canonesses went to church, unseen by each other, are almost entire; within the church the sexes were kept apart by a longitudinal wall. The late Sir George Osborn formed a collection of antiquities, and filled the windows with ancient stained glass: there is also a valuable collection of portraits, chiefly of the Osborn family, one of whom, Peter Osborn, who purchased, this estate in 1576, was keeper of the Privy Purse to Edward VI. and one of the Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Affairs in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; another Colonel Henry Osborn, was slain at the Battle of Naseby (14th July, 1846) ; and Henry Osborn, Vice-Admiral of Great Britain, was a distinguished naval officer, who died in 1771 ; there is also a fine full length portrait of Edward VI. by Holbein and a valuable portrait of Oliver Cromwell by Sir Peter Lely. The state bed-chamber, at the end of the north gallery, wasp built by the late Sir George in imitation of the Chapter House at Peterborough, and contains a state bed, once the property of James I. richly adorned with crowns and the letters J. R. In the cloisters is an enriched coffin slab, with effigy in relief of an ecclesiastic vested and bearing a pastoral staff and book, and inscribed: HIC ICET FRATER THOMAS DE COTGRAVE ABBAS DE PIPPEWEL' CVI AIE PFICIETVR DEVS AMEN; but. the inscription is now nearly illegible. The Duke of Bedford K.G. is lord of the manor. Sir A. K. B. Osborn Bart. is the principal landowner. The soil is sandy ; subsoil, gravelly.

The chief crops are wheat, barley, and turnips. The area is 1,430 acres of land and 9 of water; rateable value, 1,321 ; the population in 1901 was 62.

Letters received through Biggleswade, via Shefford, arrive at 8 a.m. Shefford is the nearest money order & telegraph office & for posting letters, 1 1/2 miles distant

This parish is included in Campton United School Board district formed March 8, 1875

Osborn Sir Algernon Kerr Butler bart. J.P. The Priory
Gray George, farmer, Lodge farm
Gray John, farmer, Lodge farm
Mossman James, jun. farmer, Chicksands lodge
Mossman Alfred, farmer
Skipper William, head gamekeeper to Sir Algernon Kerr Butler Osborn bart. J.P.

Page last updated: 23rd January 2014