Totternhoe
Timeline
Places > Totternhoe
1086: The Domesday Book lists four mills in Totternhoe.
1100-1150: Totternhoe Castle was built during this period. The castle is actually a Norman motte and bailey which is remarkably complete, retaining a small motte surrounded by an inner bailey together with a larger outer bailey sealed by a broads bank and ditch running across the width of the outlier.
1131: First documentary evidence of a quarry at Totternhoe in a charter given by Henry I to Dunstable Priory.
12th Century: There was a church at Totternhoe by the 12th century and the list of incumbents goes back to 1220. The present building is all of a later date. The chancel dates from the 14th century and the rest of the church is largely of the late 15th and early 16th century.
1318: Edward II ordered the Sheriff of Bedfordshire to provide men to work in Totternhoe Quarry.
1433: The Cross Keys public house has a fire place dated 1433. The building is believed to have been built as a cottage and to have become a public house at a later date.
1815-25: Doolittle Mill, formerly known as Horsham Mill, built sometime between these dates. The mill was unusual because it was a combined windmill and watermill.
1840: Methodist Chapel built and enlarged c1862.
1849: Stanbridgeford Station with its level crossing opened, although the platforms were not completed until November 1860. The station was not very close to either Totternhoe or Stanbridge the nearest villages. However, the name Stanbridgeford was chosen as the stations name. The station was the only intermediate station on the 6 mile stretch between Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard.
1867: The village school opened, paid for by Lady Marian Alford in memory of her son the 2nd Earl of Brownlow.
1868: The sails of Doolittle Mill blown off.
1869: Philip de Berenger took a 60 year lease on some local quarries and started the lime works.
1891: Totternhoe Enclosure Act, the village was the last in Bedfordshire to be enclosed.
1896: Totternhoe Lime, Stone & Cement Company formed.
1921: Doolittle Mill ceases working.
1933: By the South Bedfordshire Order of 1933, part of the parish of Totternhoe was transferred to Dunstable.
1962: Passenger services ceased at Stanbridgeford Station on the 2nd July. Although goods traffic continued until 1st June 1964. The station building was converted into a private house.
1966: The Cross Keys Public House badly damaged by fire in March.
1972: Totternhoe Church Hall sold for 45,000 in November. The money from the sale of the old hall, which was half a mile from the church, was used to build a new hall next to the church.
1990: Totternhoe Methodist Chapel closed in March.
1997: Castle Hill Stores and Post Office closed on the 8th April. (Dunstable Gazette, 2nd April).
1998: New village shop opens in February. (Dunstable Gazette, 19th February).
Sources :
- Newspaper articles in The Local Studies Library at Bedford Central Library.
- Victoria County History of Bedfordshire 3 Vols. 1912.
- PICKFORD, Christopher Bedfordshire Churches in the 19th Century Vol.79 Bedfordshire Historical Record Society. 2000.
- CURRAN, J. The Story of Totternhoe Quarries. 2005.
Page last updated: 4th February 2014