Kempston
General
History
The Guide to Kempston Urban District, 1970
(Extract)
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Before the Norman Conquest the countryside around Kempston was part of the northern border of the Saxon kingdom of Alfred the Great. During encounters with the Danes along the Ouse valley this territory was taken and retaken in the tenth and eleventh centuries. William the Conqueror bestowed the manor of Kempston on his niece, Judith, who was responsible for the building of the first church here, and who also founded the once renowned nunnery in the near-by village of Elstow. Her possession of both these places is recorded in the Domesday Survey compiled in 1086. In the thirteenth century the manor of Kempston was held by the Lady Dervorgilla whose husband was John de Balliol. They were the founders of the famous Balliol College at Oxford as well as two abbeys in Scotland. She died in 1290 at Kempston but is buried in her Abbey of the Sweet Heart, Galloway. The life of the village of Kempston was little disturbed during the succeeding centuries until the outbreak of the civil war when most of the ordinary people supported Parliament although the local gentry declared for the King. Various encounters took place around Bedford which was captured by the Royalists but later became Cromwell's headquarters. In 1644 John Bunyan, of the near-by village of Elstow, was conscripted into the Parliamentarian army, serving for three years. He returned home to continue his trade as a tinker and became converted. By 1656 he was preaching publicly and continued to do so until apprehended in 1660 and committed to prison where he started to write his immortal" Pilgrim's Progress". He was released when the laws against Nonconformists were relaxed some twelve years later. His religious influence is still strong in this part of Bedfordshire. The old industries of Kempston and the surrounding places were mainly connected with agriculture, with the cottage craft of lace making which is said to have been introduced by Henry VIII's discarded Queen Catherine while she was residing at Ampthill. With the development of more modern undertakings at Bedford in the latter part of the nineteenth century following the opening of the railway line to join the main line at Bletchley in 1846 and the direct line between Bedford and London in 1868, many inhabitants of Kempston worked in the county town; but various smaller industries also became established at Kempston, and the augmentation of these since the last war has provided increasing local employment.
L. Edgar Pike
Extract
from: The Guide to Kempston Urban District, 1970
Reproduced by permission of Kempston Town Council
Page last updated: 30th January 2014