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870 – 1060 Etonbury Manor stood just north of the A507 close to the river. It was a bury (possibly medieval manorial site) or has also been described as a Motte & Bailey construction. Very little remains due to earthworks from the railway construction. There are records on the National Heritage website: |
1086 Arlesey is recorded in the Domesday Book as having three Manors: Etonbury to the north, Arleseybury in the middle and Lanthony in the south. Click here to read a potted history of Arleseybury. |
c1180 Monks from Waltham Abbey in Essex build the original church, around the year 1180 |
1220 Widening of the church and windows were put in. |
1646 Sir Samuel Brown moves to Arlesey Manor to fulfil his dream of being a country gentleman, after retiring as a judge in London. |
1750 The parish of Astwick combined with Arlesey. After being unable to provide for a priest of its own. |
1800 The Church tower fell down and was replaced by a small wooden steeple.This was later replaced by a stone tower.
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1804 Arlesey Enclosure Act passed. Arlesey Place (manor house) was aquired by Sir John Jackson , a director of the East India Company and M.P. for Dover. Between 1808 and 1821 he pulled down part of the old house and turned it into a farm house. A new mansion was constructed to the east.
Sir John Jackson 1763-1820 Image supplied by Francis Paku |
1805 The White Horse public house opened in this year. |
1840 The Lamb Hotel opened, in its own 6 acres of land. |
1845 The Three Tuns, 86 High Street opened. |
1850 Linking London to the North via York. the Great Northern Railway opened. It was this railway that encouraged the growth of the brick making industry here around the Arlesey area. The original station at Arlesey was known as Arlesey and Shefford Road. The Brickground Hotel (later The Mallard) and The Old Oak pub opens in this year. |
1852 Robert Beart of Godmanchester opens the brickworks in the south of the parish. Described at the time as "immense works". By 1858 the annual production was estimated to be 8,000,000 bricks plus 1,000,000 agricultural drainage pipes. By the late 1860s Beart's had been joined at Arlesey by three other brickworks all ranged alongside the railway. |
1857 The True Briton Public House opened. The opening of a tramway from the GNR Line to the site of The Three Counties Asylum to carry the construction material and later goods and passengers to the Asylum. The track was lifted in 1953. |
1860 Three Counties Asylum (Fairfield Hospital) opened.Tthe first patients were admitted on the 8th March, six men and six women were transferred from the Bedford Asylum. Their ages ranged from 27 to 77 years and their history of hospitalisation from 7 weeks to 34 years. |
1861 There were 460 patients in the Asylum, 212 men and 248 women and during the year 44 patients had been discharged and 47 had died. On average 125 men and 131 women were regularly employed. Of these 66 men worked in the garden and farm while 33 women worked regularly in the laundry and wash house. St. Peter's National School opened, later named changed to Arlesey St. Peter's Board School. |
1863 The Crown Public House opened, it had its own football team and hosted to Arlesey Town Band. |
1865 The Rose and Crown opens as does The City Arms. The Prince of Wales Public House at 60 Hitchin Road opens; in the mid 1970s there was a miniature railway in the garden of this public house. |
1866 On the 1st April Arlesey Sidings Station opened, on the 1st July 1886 the name was changed to Three Counties Station. |
1868 The Stag Public House opens in this year. |
1876 Arlesey Sidings School opens on the 2nd October.
On the 23rd December 1876 the 2.45 pm GNR express to Peterborough left Kings Cross on its non-stop journey. Goods train with 25 wagons on Southbound track had been switched to pick up more wagons in a siding and crossed the Northbound track. 22nd wagon derailed and workers could not right the wagon. The passenger train hit the goods wagon at around 70 mph and the engine detached from the tender rising over the wagon, killing six people and injuring 30, after the six front carriages had hit the goods train. |
1877 Church tower rebuilt, now housing six bells. |
1878 The Arlesey Industrial and Provident Society (The Co-op) was formed in 1878 in the old Drill Hall (later to become the Cosy Cinema) .They eventually moved to new premises in Hospital Road (a plaque marks the building). |
1880 Working Men's Club opened, it was situated in what was then called Straw Street with a reading room, a lecture hall with seating for 300 people and a billiards room. |
1884 A serious outbreak of smallpox took hold in the Asylum and thirteen patients plus a nurse died. |
1891 Arlesey Football Club founded. Arlesey originally played at 'The Bury' before moving to their former home, 'Lamb Meadow'. |
1895 The number of patients in the Asylum had reached 1,116. |
1910 St. Andrew's Church built at the southern end of the village to cater for people living in the area. |
1918 Arlesey Women's Institute formed. |
1920 Arlesey's first cinema opened in Hospital Road, it was named the Victory and had a chequered career with several name changes. It was known as the Premier in the 1930s and the Cosy Cinema in the 1950s. It closed several times before the final closure in June 1962. |
1923 Arlesey win the North Beds Charity Cup, beating Meppershall 1-0 in the final. The image below was sent in by Mr. Eddie Smith his father Edwin Smith (honoury secretary at the time) is seen pictured on the right in this picture.
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1925 Closure of Owen's Pump Works. |
1926 Both The Stag Public House, Davis Row and The City Arms close in this year. |
1926 Arlesey St. Peter's Board School closes in December with the pupils transferred to Arlesey Sidings School. |
1927 Authority received from the Ministry of Health to change the Asylum's name to The Three Counties Hospital. |
1928 The Arlesey Industrial and Provident Society (The Co-op) held a big celebration in the village for its golden Jubilee (50 years) in 1928 and was captured by the late Fred Page (on glass plates). The parade was led by the Arlesey Silver Prize Band. Bandmaster, Jim Dodgeson moved to Arlesey from Yorkshire, the home of Brass Bands.
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1929 Arlesey Women's Institute Hall officially opened in May. During the Second World War it was taken over by the army for billeting troops. |
1933 Arlesey and Shefford Road Station renamed Arlesey and Henlow Station. |
1939 Arleseybury closes as a finishing school for girls and the lodge made headquarters of Home Guard. |
1943 Sunday 19th December 1943 a Halifax BB364 (Mk II) of 138 Sqn from Tempsford, crashes into a chimney at the brickworks in Arlesey. The plane was on a training exercise and failed to clear the stacks. No-one survived. |
1944 On the 28 March a Lockheed Hudson belonging to 161 Squadron RAF crashed on the Arlesey to Stotfold road killing the crew. |
1950 Arlesey Bury was acquired by Three Counties Hospital as a home for nursing staff. |
1952 Coronation celebrations took place all over the country and Arlesey was no different.
As its Jubilee year we thought you might like an image from the Queens Coronation year. Above are some of the fancy dress entries for the Arlesey Coronation celebrations.
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1955 Etonbury School opened on the 18th April as a county secondary school, the first head teacher was Mr. R.N. Alexander. |
1959 The Arlesey & Henlow and Three Counties Stations were closed for passenger traffic on the 5th January 1959 and for goods traffic on the 28th November 1960. |
1960 Three Counties Hospital renamed Fairfield Hospital. |
1964 The Lamb Inn closes. |
1967 Biggs & Wall, engineering firm move to Arlesey, on a four acre site in Hitchin Road. |
1968 Arlesey & District Dramatic Society formed, their first play was "Book of the Month", performed in 1969. |
1969 Arlesey Road Bridge opened in October. |
1971 Community Centre opened with a village hall, library, youth club and medical centre. |
1974 The Old Moat purchased by The Bedfordshire Wildlife Trust and made into a nature reserve. |
1975 Etonbury School redesignated as a Middle School. School's heated outdoor swimming pool opened. |
1977 Old Steam Shovel was recovered from Arlesey Pit, known as the Blue Lagoon, it was restored went to the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. |
1979 The disused primary school demolished. |
1981 New Methodist Church opened at a cost of £85,000. |
1982 Arlesey Young Wives stage the panto Cinderella at the Village Hall. From this A.P.P.L.E. was born. The group went on to produce pantomimes and variety shows. View images from some of the productions |
1983 Arlesey Women's Institute Hall re-opened on the 29th October two years after being gutted by fire on 15th April 1981, the cost of restoration and rebuilding being around £24,000. |
1985 The Crown Public House closes, the site is now part of a new development called Crown Lodge. |
1988 Arlesey Station re-opened on the 3rd October on the site of the old Arlesey and Henlow Station.
The Opening of the new station on Saturday 1st October 1988. |
1992 Butterley Brick Ltd suspends production at its Arlesey plant from the 1st October. |
1993 Preliminary work on the Arlesey/Stotfold Bypass by Bedfordshire County Council starts. |
1994 The Rose and Crown,200 High Street closes as does The Star public house also in the High Street. |
1995 Work on the Arlesey/Stotfold Bypass finally starts. Arlesey Town Football Club reach the FA Vase Final at Wembley and defeat the favourites Oxford City 2-1 on May 13th.
May 1995, Arlesey Town parade the FA Vase. |
1996 Arlesey/Stotfold Bypass opens to traffic for the first time from lunchtime on Friday March 29th, the construction cost £12 million. |
1999 24th-25th July, Arlesey Town Football Club's new ground in Hitchin Road officially opened. The Prince of Wales Public House closes. After a 139 years Fairfield Hospital closes and the site sold to London based developer Wiggins for housing. May – A.P.P.L.E. donate £500 to the Millennium Meadow fund. ACORN use the donation to help buy Glebe Meadow. The donation was raised from proceeds of the pantomime Puss in Boots in the previous January.
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1999 In March Arlesey Conservation for Nature purchased Glebe Meadows, this site is now held in perpetuity by The Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Wildlife Trust.
Photo: Steve Maddox, October 2010 |
2000 Arlesey First Scout Group's new headquarters officially opened in June. |
2002 The Queen's Golden Jubilee Year.
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2003 A replica of the old Village Pump was installed outside the Village Hall as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations. It is thought the official opening (pictured below) with June Harrowell,
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2004 Work began in April on the former site of Fairfield Hospital to build a new community of hundreds of homes. The development will be known as Fairfield Park. |
2006 The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived in Arlesey as they began their tour of Mid Beds.
They were greeted by a group of wellwishers. Ellen Dart, 8 and Martha Trendell, 5 presented Her Majesty with posies of flowers. |
2011 The excavator that was salvaged from the Blue Lagoon in 1977 has now taken to a new home in Cumbria. The 1909 Ruston Proctor 306 has been donated to the Vintage Excavator Trustat Threlkeld to be fully restored, by its owner Mr Ray Hooley. It is the only survivng model and is hoped to be in steam for the trusts 50th anniversary in 2012. www.threlkeldminingmuseum.co.uk Saturday 29th October. Arlesey Town Football Club progressed through to the first round proper of the FA Cup after beating Forest Green Rovers 2-1 at home. The first time in the club's history. |
