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Pavenham
Timeline

Places > Pavenham

1205: Church first mentioned as a chapel or daughter church to Felmersham.

13th Century: Church exists only as a nave and chancel.

14th Century: The tower, spire and the chapel north of the chancel added to the church.

15th Century: North aisle and south transept (a chapel) added to the church.

1578: Churchwardens report Trinity College for letting the church fall into disrepair .

1665: The year that the Pavenham Old Yew Tree believed to have been planted, the year of the Great Plague.

1770: Pavenham Enclosure Act.

1798: Workhouse first mentioned.

1813: Water Mill closed.

1827: Sunday School started.

1853: Church of England School opened, provided by Squire Tucker.

1857: Wesleyan Chapel built.

1877: Vicarage built, designed by Bedford architect John Usher.

1880: Three envoys from the Ruler of Buganda in Africa travelled to England with the missionary Charles Wilson to meet Queen Victoria.  They were housed for some time in the village of Pavenham where Charles's father was vicar.  After six weeks they began their long return home.  However, a young African who had travelled with them named Hatashil Masha Kathish - or Salim - remained living with the family in the vicarage.  Salim attended the village school in order to learn to read and write and later accompanied Mrs Wilson to Nottingham after the death of her husband in 1881. He attended a missionary training institute but continued to live in England, much in demand as a preacher and speaker.  He was baptised in August 1882 and given the name Salim Charles Wilson. (Wilson, 1988)

1888: Cricket Club founded.

1920: War memorial unveiled.

1935: Electricity came to the village.

1938: The Cock Inn substantially rebuilt.

1955: Roof to the nave of the church replaced.

1959: Village Hall re-opened after improvements made.

1960: Pavenham Bury demolished.

1961: The Old Yew Tree transplanted 15 feet from its original position as part of a road improvement scheme.

1963: Pavenham Methodist Church closes.

1965: Pavenham Women's Institute plant oak in the playing fields to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the Women's Institute.

1967: Pavenham Sports Pavilion opened.

1972: Vicarage demolished.

1980: New Village Hall opened.

1983: Village school closed.


Sources:

  • Newspaper cuttings from the Local Studies Collection in Bedford Central Library
  • Africans in Pavenham by Eric Wilson, Bedfordshire Magazine, Vol. 21, Winter 1988,  pp273-276

 


Page last updated: 3rd February 2014