Aspley Guise
Kelly's Directory of Bedfordshire 1894 (Extract)
Places > Aspley Guise > General History
Aspley Guise, formerly a town, is now a parish and well-built village. a mile and a half from Woburn Sands station of the London and North Western railway, in the Southern division of the county, hundred of Manshead, petty sessional division and union of Woburn, county court district of Leighton Buzzard, rural deanery of Fleete, archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Ely.
The church of St Botolph is an elegant building in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, with organ chamber and vestry on the north, and a small chapel on the south, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles and an embattled western tower with crocketed pinnacles and containing a clock and 6 bells; the south aisle was added and the whole fabric greatly enlarged and restored through the exertions and almost sole expense, as well as under the superintendence, of the Rev. John Vaux Moore, formerly rector; all the windows, twenty eight in number, are stained; there is a memorial window in the vestry to H.R.H. the Prince Consort, placed in 1862, and three memorial windows in the south aisle to the Moore family: in the north aisle is an alter tomb with fine brass effigy of a knight in plate armour, worn over a hauberk, to one of the Guise family, circ.1490, from which the village derives its adjunct; there is also an ancient slab, from which a floriated cross and marginal inscriptions are lost, but at the foot are figures in brass of a priest kneeling and St John the Baptist standing, circ. 1410. The church was restored in 1855, and in 1884 the upper portion of the tower was rebuilt at a cost of 150, and the peal of 4 bells increased to six: in 1890 the church was entirely restored, an organ chamber, vestries and chapel erected, and the interior reseated at a total cost of 2,200
The village of Aspley contains a number of good houses, and is very beautifully situated on and below a range of sand hills, which rise to a height of about 420 feet above the level of the sea. The atmosphere is dry and salubrious, and the temperature equable: there is a plentiful supply of pure, soft, spring water. Adjoining the village are large plantations of firs and evergreens, to the growth of which the soil is peculiarly adapted.
Sexton & Verger, Thomas William Brown.
POST, M.O. & T.O., S.B> & Annuity & Insurance Office, -Sidney James Chisnall, sub-postmaster.
WALL LETTER BOXES, Duke street and Mount Pleasant.
A School Board of 5 members was formed April 12, 1879; Charles Gosling, Ridgmont clerk to the board; James Page Chapman, Woburn Sands, attendance officer. This place also contributes 2 members to the Aspley Heath School Board
Board School (mixed and infants), built about 1850, for 199 children; average attendance, 110; George H. Taylor, master; Miss Grace Hurman, mistress.
Page last updated: 21st January 2014