Just over an hour up the M1 from Pinner is Kempston, a quiet semi-rural town in Bedfordshire a couple of miles south of Bedford, the county town. Actually, as is often the case with English towns and villages, Kempston is in fact spread over several centres: Kempston, Kempston Church End and Kempston Hardwick. At Kempston Church End, (signposted Kempston Rural - confused?) we found All Saints Church, right on the River Ouse. The church celebrated its 900th anniversary last year.
Among some fine and elaborate headstones, Mark discovered three Lilley graves: John and Elizabeth, Ann and West, and Mary & Thomas, and their children Elizabeth, Matthias and William. The details on the first two headstones were fading into the stone and the moss, but the third was beautifully clear. (Maybe it had been re-done, as the date order was puzzling.) According to the helpful local cleaning the church, Matthias and William were the last men hanged in Bedfordshire, on 4 April 1829, for poaching. She told us that Bedfordshire was once a lacemaking centre and the local custom was to engrave significant events onto the bobbins used in the lacemaking; that there was a bobbin called the 'Hanging bobbin' which recorded this event, and was worth thousands of pounds.
At the Cecil Higgins gallery in Bedford, we saw many examples of such bobbins, but the curator who rushed in and out of the rooms and chatted to us as though we were visiting his own home told us that someone was hanged in Bedford gaol in the '50s...
It's over to you, Brian, to find out if any of these are related!
Just click on the pic for the full picture
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All Saints Church - look at that blue sky! |
Being recorded in the Domesday Book is a mark of historical status |
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John (d. 1791) & Elizabeth Lilley |
Ann (d. 1874) & West Lilley |
Lilley family: Mary (d. 1833), Elizabeth (d. 1821), Matthias and William (d. 1829) and Thomas (d. 1813/15?) |
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Lilley family closeup |
Clare found lots of headstones 'with their coats on, just like me' |
Erin on an unusual external staircase |