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HISTORY of CARLTON
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The village of Carlton owes its existence to the River Great Ouse, used by Stone Age man,
whose tools have occasionally been uncovered in the area. Aerial photographs show signs
of ‘ring’ ditches near the river, which may be Bronze Age burial sites. Excavations
have been undertaken on Iron Age settlements close to the parish. A Roman road is
thought to have existed between the villages of Harrold, Carlton and Stevington,
and various pieces of Roman pottery and rare, enamelled Roman brooches have been discovered in the fields.
When the Vikings arrived, the Ouse Valley became an armed frontier and the
border of King Knut’s Danish empire. The name Carlton is derived from
the Viking name ‘Karla’, meaning free man, and the Saxon ‘tun’,
which means a farm or a collection of dwellings. Our village of Carlton is
the most southerly in England bearing the name and therefore indicates how
far south the Vikings came.
Carlton is mentioned in the Domesday Book (as Carletone). William the
Conqueror gave land in the parish to his niece, Countess Judith, and a
deer park to his stepbrother, the Bishop of Bayeux. A study performed by
Leicester University suggested that this was likely to have been centred
on the moated site and associated earthworks at Carlton Hall Farm.
However, the square stone dovecote with 1000 nesting holes is much more
recent, probably dating from the 17th century.
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| The parish church, which is dedicated to St.
Mary the Virgin, lies outside the village, although medieval trackways and
old maps show the original village to have been much closer. The building,
is of local stone, and was begun around 950AD. Over the years it has been
altered and enlarged, but by the end of the 15th
century, the church building as we can see it now was complete. The list
of incumbents goes back to 1229AD, and includes some interesting
characters. One Thomas Wells was Parson for ‘three score years and ten’
and died at the age of 100 years. However the next Parson was
dismissed after only five years for alleged drunkenness and is reputed to
have kept his horse in the church during a service! The diary of Benjamin
Rogers (Rector from 1720 to 1771AD) still exists, and gives a detailed
account of life in the 18th century, including details of the
farming year, the social life of the local gentry and medical remedies of
the day.
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Carlton Church
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Chellington Church
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First mentioned in 1218AD, the parish of Chellington
merged ecclesiastically with Carlton (to become Carlton-cum-Chellington)
in 1729AD, but for civil purposes, the parishes remained separate until
1934AD. The name of the village is from an Old English woman’s name ‘Cêolwynne-tun’,
meaning ‘the farm of Cêolwynne’. The church and a farm are now
all that remains of the medieval village, although the position of some
old dwellings and trackways can still be seen. Ridge and furrow are also
visible and correspond to the ancient, open field system, shown on a map
of 1798AD. The reasons for the desertion of the hilltop village are
unknown. Suggestions include the ‘Black Death’ or it may simply
have been the attraction of the better facilities of the main road and
bridge, together with easier working of the land. The redundant church of
St. Nicholas is built mainly in the Early English style of the 12th
century. In the churchyard can be found the tomb of Sir Robert Darling,
who was Sheriff of London in 1767, he is reported to have kept cows on
Chellington Hill as a boy. The church itself was converted into a Diocesan
Youth Centre in 1975.
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| Harrold Bridge is built of limestone and has
been in existence since before 1140AD. It has been repaired and altered
over the years, and in medieval times the Lords of the Manors of Odell,
Harrold, Carlton and Chellington were each responsible for the
maintenance and upkeep of one river arch between them (which accounts for
their different shapes). The 20 arched, raised causeway leading to the
bridge from the Carlton side of the river is also of medieval origin.
Carlton once had its own watermill, sited at Mill Holme Island. There were
many such mills on the Ouse, and the slowing of the river current caused,
by the numerous number of dams caused silting up of the river. The river
itself is nowadays controlled by automatic sluices. After a storm, the
water meadows in Carlton are allowed to flood in order to prevent the
valuable topsoil in the Fens from being washed out to sea.
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The Carlton Baptist Meeting was first granted a licence to hold
services in a barn at Fishers Farm belonging to a William Brown, who was
married to John Bunyan’s daughter, Sarah. The first chapel was
built in 1760AD and over the years has attracted congregations of up to
1000. It has a three-decked pulpit and a gallery around 3 sides.
Descendants of some of the early benefactors still live in the village
today. Baptist meetings ceased to be held in 2001AD, with the cemetery
being made over for safe keeping to the Carlton and Chellington Parish
Council in 2002AD. The chapel is now a private dwelling.
Baptist Chapel
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| In 1844AD, an enlightened local landowner,
Thomas Higgins of Turvey, instigated the building of a reform school in
Carlton for young offenders. There were workshops for carpentry,
shoemaking and engineering, and the boys also had to undertake farmwork.
It is now no longer used as a corrective establishment, but has since
passed from being St. Margaret’s School, a training and conference
centre funded by the Bedfordshire County Council to its present incumbent EMMAUS
Community Centre.
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| The first village school was built in the
village in 1872AD with a Mr. Simpson being recorded as the first
Headmaster, this was situated next to the Post Office in Bridgend.
Attendance at the time was not good, because at certain times of the year,
priority had to be given over by the children to local farm work, like
potato picking. However, there are references to a Parochial school in
1869AD with a Miss Beattie as Mistress and a second to a mixed Parochial
School being built in 1859AD for 105 children. During the Great War of
1914-18AD, refugee children came to the village from afar a field as
Belgium, and during the Second World War of 1939-45AD, evacuees from the
town of Eastbourne shared the school. In 1972AD, a new school, the Carlton
V.C. Lower School was built in The Moor. This Lower School shares its hall
and related facilities with the local community as a Village Hall. The
previous Village Hall had been an old army hut, which had been erected
soon after the First World War, situated opposite The Fox Public House.
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The oldest remaining buildings of Carlton and
Chellington are the groups of stone dwellings to be found at opposite ends
of the present village. In the 19th century, a few red brick
houses were added to the two settlements, but it was not until the
1960’s and 70’s, when there was considerable expansion of private
housing development, that the two groups of buildings became joined to
form the continuous settlement comprising of the village layout today. The
major ‘infilling’ was the building of properties, which now forms
Rectory Close, which was carried out on the grounds of the old Rectory and
Rectory Farm, and farmland on the perimeter of the village. The building
of Beeby Way on Angel Field soon followed, with the latest development of
Carriers Way on the site of Rockingham Farm land was completed in 1981AD
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| Information provided from the Carlton & Chellington
Village Appraisal |
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