Flitwick
Timeline
Places > Flitwick
1086: Noted in the Domesday Book as "a hamlet on the River Flitt with 16 inhabitants".
1210: David Rufus became Lord of the Manor and the Rufus family remained thus for 150 years. The Civic and Community building is known as the Rufus Centre.
12th - 14th Century : Flitwick Church constructed. A Norman doorway survives from late 12th century. The church was enlarged in the early 14th century when the chancel was rebuilt and a south aisle added. The west tower was built in about 1380.
1660: Baptist Chapel founded.
1730: Flitwick watermill started operating.
1783: The Brooke family inherited The Manor Estate and remained there for three generations until 1934.
1788:Murder committed in Flitwick Wood. James Cooke, baker of Steppingley murdered Ampthill woman Elizabeth White, the following year Cooke was hanged for his crime.
1792: Flitwick Manor built.
1806: Flitwick Enclosure Act passed, enabling all the open fields to be enclosed and form compact farms or smallholdings.
1812: National School built.
1830: Agricultural Riot, low wages of farm workers and unemployment led to discontent and in December some 100 labourers created a disturbance lasting two hours before the ringleaders were arrested. The leader, William Mitchell, received 6 months hard labour.
1836: Parish workhouse sold.
1843: Smock Mill built.
1852: The National School opened.
1858: The Church of St. Peter & St. Paul was restored and enlarged by well known Victorian architect William Butterfield.
1870: Flitwick Station opened 2nd May; the coming of the railway split the village in two.
1872: School taken over by School Board.
1873: Methodist Chapel opened on Thursday 26th November.
1874: The Crown Public House was badly damaged by fire on 5th November and the premises looted by a drunken mob.
1880: 270 Roman coins dated about 270 A. D. discovered at Priestley Farm.
1891: Henry King Stevens had lived on Flitwick Moor for years earning his keep as a bird stuffer. He discovered a spring on Flitwick Moor and bottled the mineral water. His venture became a success after his mineral water was featured in The Lancet. In 1898 Henry Stevens died and The Flitwick Chalybeate Company was formed. From then until the demand faded in the 1930s Flitwick Water was sold as a remarkable mineral water with exceptional medicinal properties.
1894: Henry John Sylvester Stannard a well-known landscape artist of the period came to live in the village.
1894: The Iron Room, so called because it was built of corrugated iron was opened, it served as a church hall and reading room.
1895: Rev. Frederick Lipscombe published the first Flitwick Parish Magazine in January 1895. In 1899 he died after being knocked off his bike by a runaway horse.
1897: Electricity arrives at Flitwick.
1903: On Wednesday 8th April St. Andrew's Church officially dedicated
1903:Flitwick windmill burnt down on the 10th November.
1904: Flitwick Cricket Club formed on the 3rd June.
1907: Gas supplied to Flitwick
1908: Baptist Church built.
1910: From this year peat was shipped out by train from Flitwick Moor to Leicester, Nottingham and Desborough where it was used for the purification of coal gas.This enterprise ended in 1967 with the introduction of North Sea gas.
1911: The Rev. J.L. Ward Petley published his book "Flitwick : the story of an old Bedfordshire village".
1919: "Victory Hall", a corrugated iron structure, was built in Steppingley Road next to the cricket pitch and used as a village hall.
1922: Dedication of Village War Memorial.
1928: Mains water and sewerage service supplied.
1941: "Over 150 senior evacuee children attended a special Christmas party held in flitwick mixed schools on Saturfday. The party began with a play entitled "Cinderella" given by senior evacuees. This was followed by conjuoring tricks...Tea followed and crackers and Indian head dresses were also distributed." (Bedfordshire Times, 3rd January 1941)
1948: Leeming Dairies founded.
1954: Redborne Secondary School opened.
1965: Kingsmoor Primary School opened.
1969: New Village Hall built.
1974: Woodlands Middle School opened.
1977: Flitwick Squash and Social Club formed.
1977: First Flitwick Carnival, it started as a programme of events to celebrate the Silver Jubilee.
1981: On Tuesday 24th February Tesco Supermarket opened; 160 staff were recruited.
1982: Flitwick Library opened on Monday 6th December.
1983: Flitwick Moor purchased by The Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire Naturalists Trust.
1984: Flitwick Leisure Centre opened.
1990: New swimming pool opened on Sunday April 1st.
1994: Flitwick Manor House becomes a hotel.
2000: Flitwick Town Council moved into the Rufus Centre.
Page last updated: 28th January 2014