GenUKI Contents

Bedfordshire

WOBURN SANDS

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"WOBURN SANDS, a parish on the Buckinghamshire border and on the road from Dunstable to Newport Pagnell, it is an ecclesiastical parish formed in 1867."

[The above was transcribed (and edited) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868]
by Colin Hinson ©2023

Census

• The 1851 Census Index for Woburn Sands can be found under Aspley Guise in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 4, Book 4 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.

Churches

• St. Michael's Church, Woburn Sands.
• St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Woburn Sands.
• The Methodist Church, Woburn Sands.

Church History

• Church of England
  • The church of St. Michael, at Aspley Heath, erected in 1868, from designs by Mr. Henry Glutton, architect, is an edifice in the French Gothic style, and originally consisted of chancel, nave of five bays and a small circular western bell turret: in 1889 it was enlarged from designs by Sir Arthur Blomfield A.R.A., F.S.A. at a cost of £2,400, when the chancel was extended and new chancel and naye built on the north side, and transepts and vestries were also added; an oak pulpit with stone base has been presented by Mr. & Mrs. Stuart in memory of four of their children, and an oak lectern by Miss F. A. Stuart, in memory of Mrs. Nicholson. The stained east window was erected in 1889 as a memorial to Mr. W. H. Denison, for 21 years churchwarden, and there is another memorial window to Maud F. Stuart. The reredos, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield A.R.A. was erected in 1896, as a memorial to Misses C. & E. Pain. The church affords 450 sittings. The register dates from the year 1867. [Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898
• Non-conformist
  • There are Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist and Particular Baptist chapels, and a Friends' meeting house. [Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]

Description and Travel

• The Village Institute, built in 1874, at a cost of about £800, stands near the Centre of the parish; it has a library of upwards of 800 volumes, and is used for concerts and other village purposes. A Training Home for seven girls was established in 1891, in the parish of Aspley Heath, as a branch from the Girls' Training Home at Bedford. The parish is particularly salubrious, being situated on the lower greensand formation, which here is a reddish-brown sand, and partly covered by pine woods. Edgebury is the residence of Alfred Alhmtt esq. and Sandy Mount House the residence of Mrs. Stuart. The principal landowners are the Duke of Bedford, C. Ridgway esq. and Alfred Allnutt esq. [Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]

Gazetteers

• A transcript of the WoburnSands parish entries from Kelly's 1898 Directory of Bedfordshire

Military History

• The BFHS Project in conjunction with Roll of Honour contains the Woburn Sands War Memorial transcription for WW1 and WW2 with details of the men found on it