GenUKI Contents | Bedfordshire | Nearby places |
"LEIGHTON BUZZARD, a parish, post, and market town in the hundred of Manshead, county Bedford, 18 miles south west of Bedford, and 41 from London. It has a station on the London and North-Western railway, which here passes through a slightly carved tunnel 272 yards in length; there is also a branch here to Dunstable. It is situated on the east bank of the river Ouse, or Ousel, over which is a bridge leading into Buckinghamshire, and near the Grand Junction canal, which is navigable for vessels of eighty tons. The parish, which is of large extent, contains the chapelries of Billington, Eggington, Stanbridge, and Heath with Reach. The soil is in general fertile, but there is a considerable tract of common, now enclosed. The proper adjunct to its name is "Beau Desert," corrupted into Buzzard. It is supposed to be the Lygeanburg of the Saxon Chronicle, which Cuthwulph took from the Britons in 671." (There is more of this description).The 1868 Gazetteer description of the following places in Leighton Buzzard is to be found on a supplementary page.
- Billington
- Clipstone
- Eggington
- Fox Corner
- Grovebury
- Heath
- Heath and Reach
- Little Billington
- Reach
- Rushmere
- Stanbridge
- Stanbridgeford