Bedford
Bedford maps (2 available)
Map of Bedfordshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Bedfordshire
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Bedford books (7 available)
- 81 photos on Bedford appear in 6 Frith books - View photos of Bedford
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Bedford and Bedfordshire
Bedford memories
Read and share memories of Bedford and Bedfordshire inspired by Frith photos
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
Contributed by Mr PC Hedgecock
Bedfordshire memories
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
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
My First Visit to Marston
The first time I went to Marston my boyfriend was taking me to visit his parents. I was 15 and he was 17. We caught a train from Bedford St John's and got off at Milbrook Halt. His family lived in a Brickyard home in "Jubilee Cottages". It wasn't as modern as my parents' council house as it had no hot water and an outside non-flush toilet. He thought that I was posh because we had two flushing toilets, one inside the house and one outside. His house had no bathroom either.
Back then the Brickyards were still working and I remember all of the chimneys in the skyline.
His family moved to Peterborough a few months later and we have ...read more here
A memory of contributed by Alice Pope
Extracts From Bedford & Bedfordshire books
In the far distance is the old
Harpur School, now the Town
Hall. It was supplemented by this
fine Tudor-style battlemented
building when the Harpur Trust
built the Modern School, or the
Harpur Schools, in the 1830s;
the building was designed by the
renowned local architect John
Wing, whose son was a pupil, but
was completed by John Blore. No
longer a school, it was preserved
as a frontage to a shopping
centre. The railings have long
gone, but two of the ornate cast-
iron lamp-posts survive in what is
now a pedestrianised street.
An extract from from"Bedford Photographic Memories".
Now Bedford High School for
Girls, this fine building originally
housed both the High School
and the girls’ Modern School.
Opened in 1882, it was
designed by the leading
architect Basil Champneys in a
Jacobethan style, with numerous
shaped gables and mullioned
and transomed windows. The
Modern School moved out in
1892. This east front faces the
high walls surrounding Bedford
Prison on the other side of
Adelaide Square, which is itself
a collection of fine buildings,
some of 1801 by Bedford’s
own John Wing.
An extract from from"Bedford Photographic Memories".
Our look at the fine schools of Bedford
moves north beyond St Peter’s Square
to Bedford School. This had its origins
in the free school founded by Sir
William Harpur in 1566. The Harpur
Trust, following the decay of its school
in the 18th century, made ample
amends in the 19th with the Harpur
Schools in the 1830s; then after 1873
it had three further schools built. Here
we see the south front of the grammar
school; it is now Bedford School, and
from the start took boarders as well as
day boys.
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".
The old Infirmary, designed by
John Wing and opened in 1803,
fronted Ampthill Road; it was
later expanded to be the
Bedford General Hospital
(South Site). Founded with a
bequest from Samuel
Whitbread, it had fifty beds -
and a budget of £50 a year for
leeches. In 1899, two years
after this view was taken, it was
replaced by fiery red brick and
terra cotta buildings; its site is
now occupied by an uninspiring
Accident and Emergency
building opened in 1964. It is a
sad loss to the architectural
heritage of the town.
An extract from from"Bedford Photographic Memories".