Bedford
St. Loyes

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St Loye, was a 7th century bishop of Noyan whose name was widely associated with powers of healing with holy wells and pesthouses being dedicated to him. A pesthouse was a building where people who had communicable diseases such as cholera, typhus or smallpox were housed.

Speeds 1610 map of Bedford shows the name St. Loyes at the site of a pesthouse where Trinity Church is now situated. During the 18th and early 19th century the street was known as St. Lloyds before the Improvement Commissions choice in 1835 re-instated the name St. Loyes Street.

Sources

• Newspaper Cuttings Collection, Local Studies Library, Bedford Central Library 
• FREEMAN, Ian   From Saxons to Speed : A new history of Old Bedford.  2006

Page last updated: 22nd January 2014