Great Barford
Timeline
Places > Great Barford
1086: The Domesday Book lists two mills, one worth 22s and the other 7s and 80 eels.
15th Century: Great Barford bridge built, Sir Gerard Braybrooke, who died in 1429, left money for its completion. Soon afterwards the burgesses of Bedford complained that people used it in preference to Bedford bridge and that it had caused trade to bypass the town.
1638: Navigation, in the sense of locks etc., had reached Great Barford by this date.
1781: Major repairs to Great Barford bridge carried out by John Wing who had built Bedford Gaol and Bedford Bridge.
1818: Great Barford bridge widened to allow carriages to pass with safety on the bridge.
1820: Great Barford Enclosure Act passed.
1824: Methodist Chapel built.
1836: The Golden Cross first licensed.
1843: Great Barford House built for Joseph Humbley who had the house built for himself at a cost of 2,800. He sold the house to the Arnold family who held it for three generations before selling in 1960.
1848: Village School built.
1850: The Beehive in Bedford Road opened.
1870: The school was enlarged to provide for an infant school.
1874: Bridge widened by building a new face of red brick over the cutwaters on the upstream side.
1923: A Memorial Hall, for use as an institute and reading room, was erected in memory of the men who died in the Great War 1914-18.
1933: In August the old lock collapsed stranding 60 punts on the lower stream.
1962: The horticultural firm of Hinckley & Sons moved to larger premises at Great Barford from Bedford.
1974: The building of a new lock and weir began in March and was finished in August 1976, with a formal opening on the 8th May 1976 when the tidying up of the adjacent land was not quiet complete.
1978: In June Great Barford became twinned with Wollstein.
1987: The Old Bakehouse, one of the villages oldest buildings demolished.
1998: The government announced in August that the Great Barford Bypass would be built.
2004: Work started in December on the long awaited Great Barford Bypass, the cost estimated at some 57 million.
2006: Great Barford Bypass opened in August at a cost of 59 million after a wait of more than 20 years. The 4.8 mile road links the A428 from Bedford with the A1 Black Cat roundabout near Roxton.
Page last updated: 28th January 2014