Kempston
Kempston maps (2 available)
Map of Bedfordshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Bedfordshire
Personalised maps
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Kempston books (7 available)
- 8 photos on Kempston appear in 1 Frith books - View photos of Kempston
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Kempston and Bedfordshire
Kempston memories
Read and share memories of Kempston and Bedfordshire inspired by Frith photos
Swimming in the river at Kempston
Great times were had at the river at the bend as we children called it, we would make mud slides down the banks. What fun we had. There was always a good crowd there on a Sunday afternoon, but now its all quiet, no swimmers, the bend has long since gone.
Contributed by jackie fleming
Bedfordshire memories
Swimming in the river at Kempston
Great times were had at the river at the bend as we children called it, we would make mud slides down the banks. What fun we had. There was always a good crowd there on a Sunday afternoon, but now its all quiet, no swimmers, the bend has long since gone.
A memory of Kempston contributed by jackie fleming
I was a projectionist at the Picturedrome
I worked there for a few years with Stan Hunt at the Picturedrome, and the Plaza which was nearly opposite across the river was owned by a man called Mr Cheetam. I also worked at the Plaza as a relief projectionist and also another cinema in Ampthill owned by Mr Cheetam.
They were great days and I now live in Leicester but now see that all four cinemas in Bedford are gone, what is left?
I thought the Picturedrome and the great cinema The Granada were LISTED buildings so who had them demolished should be SHOT. These cinemas have brought great memories to a lot of people and been destroyed by Bedford Council.
Don't you think the Granada would have ...read more here
A memory of Bedford contributed by Eric Bootles
Working memories.
I was the main weekday driver of the launch photographed during the student holiday periods of 1955-1958. When I drove it, the name was 'Silver Stream'. It was the largest of a set of three electric launches which carried paying passengers for trips of about 40 minutes duration from the steps on the downstream, north side of the town bridge. Typically this launch would carry about 40 passengers maximum. Silver Stream was a magnificent launch to drive, giving a silent drive, almost no water disturbance up to the 6 knots maximum for the river, and had a tubular rudder form which surrounded the propeller. This permitted a very tight turning such that most of us could turn round in places where ...read more here
A memory of Bedford contributed by Mr PC Hedgecock
Extracts From Kempston & Bedfordshire books
Sandy was originally a modest
Roman settlement on the Roman
road between St Albans and
Godmanchester; in the 18th
century the town became
important for its coaching inns
servicing the Great North Road.
However, it is a somewhat bitty
town, and the market square is a
distinct disappointment. Here, a
little further north up High Street,
we look west along Bedford Road.
The late 19th-century town hall is
on the left. By 1925 it was the
Astor Cinema, and is now the
Roundabout Club, for there is
now a roundabout roughly where
the photographer is standing.
An extract from from"Bedford Photographic Memories".
Going east from Market
Place along Church Street,
we reach the small square
with the brown stone
church on its north side, a
curiously villagey one for a
town. On the left is the
cliff-like Dynevor House,
with 1725 on the rainwater
hopper-heads, three
storeys of box sashes and
a corniced parapet. No 36a
on the right is late
Georgian, while the Feoffee
almshouses are late 16th-
century timber-framed
under the render.
An extract from from"Bedford Photographic Memories".
The riverside willows on
the north bank have only
recently been pollarded
in this view, in which an
eight rows past. The
opposite bank is Long
Island. The small landing
stage on the right was
built here to close off
the boat slide, which is
just behind it.
An extract from from"Bedford Photographic Memories".
Another glimpse of the
Swan Hotel’s neo-classical
portico can be seen through
the leaves on the left. The
views of the river from the
principal bedrooms of the
hotel were described by the
diarist John Byng in the late
1790s as being highly
agreeable with ‘the
smoothness of the wide
water, the skipping of the
fish, and the sight of a party
of elegant female rowers’.
An extract from from"Bedford Photographic Memories".
South-west of the town centre,
along the Ampthill Road, on a
large site between it and the
railway line, the County Schools
were built in the 1880s on a
grand plan with a massive tower
and, to the left, a fine chapel.
Long demolished, its site is now
occupied by Technology House,
a rather good 1960s building,
long and well-proportioned and
in generous grounds, the
remnants of the school site.
An extract from from"Bedford Photographic Memories".