Marston Moretaine
General History
Victoria County History of Bedfordshire, 1908 (Extract)

Places > Marston Moretaine > General History

The land is very flat and uninteresting and mostly given up to pasture, though wheat, barley and beans are grown. The farms are numerous and often mark the site of ancient manors. Among the more characteristic are Manor, Moat, Beaucroft, Marston Park and Hungerhill. The only considerable piece of woodland in the parish is Marston Thrift, about 12 acres in extent, in the north west.

The country is watered by a small tributary of the River Ouse, but the water supply for drinking purposes is a difficult problem. With the exception of the rectory and Moat Farm belonging to the Duke of Bedford, which draw a good and plentiful supply from a spring rising in Lidlington, it is obtained from surface wells...

Marston itself is a small modern village, in which the principal buildings are the church, schools, Baptist and Wesleyan chapels...

In a field to the south of the village on the east side of the Woburn Road is a stone connected with a local tradition of a visit of the Devil. The popular story is that a former owner of the field in which the stone was situated was playing a 'jumps', probably another name for leap-frog, on the Sabbath, when the Devil took a leap from the tower and, alighting on the stone, jumped with the offending party into eternity. The incident is perpetuated by the name of the inn near the stone, which is called 'The Jumps'

Extract from: Victoria County History of Bedfordshire, 1908

Page last updated: 3rd February 2014