My Adventures 3: Bedford

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I looked at my map of places visited and there was a huge hole of space in Bedfordshire, So I decided to visit Bedford.

Dan and I arrived at the car park at Priory Country Park ( MK41 9DJ ) where there is free parking.

We walk on from the car park and pass the site of The Priory fishponds.

Priory Fishponds, this area was part of a sequence of ponds on the eastern side of Newnham Priory and is all that remains of a medieval enclosed field system called Middle Newnham Close. It is believed that Augustinian monks farmed carp here from 1264. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

We continue along the path beside the Great Ouse River which is in full flood after all the recent rain we'd had lately.

The River Great Ouse is the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the Wash and the North Sea near Kings Lynn. Authorities disagree both on the river's source and its length with one quoting 160 mi (260 km) and another 143 mi (230 km).

The name Ouse is from the Celtic or pre-Celtic and probably means simply "water" or slow flowing river.

As we turned the corner, we didn't expect to see Pyramids!

I later discover this is the Oasis Beach Pool building, home to swimming pool featuring 2 flumes, air beds, mushroom fountain, geysers and bubble burst! There is also a gym and steam room.

The river splits in two and in the middle is a boating lake and a building called The Longholme.

Longholme Island is between the upper & lower Great River Ouse. Join for breakfast, lunch or hire one of their boats. The Longholme Café sits lake side with ever changing views and plentiful wildlife.

The name Bedford probably derived from the name of the Saxon chief, Beda, and the ford which crossed the River Great Ouse.

We continue on following the pretty river, probably looks much better in Summer when its not in flood!

A pigeon decided to do a large shit on me, luckily landed on my rucksack straps missing me!

We reach Abbey Bridge where there are pole markers for what we assume is for the canoeists of the river.

Just beyond the bridge is a weir.

We walk on and reach Bedford Town Bridge.

No trace remains of Bedford's Medieval Bridge, which was demolished in 1811 and replaced by the present bridge on the same site. The Medieval Bridge became an important factor in the growth and prosperity of Bedford as the next bridge across the river for highway traffic was at St. Neots some thirteen miles away. Tradition has it that the bridge was built from the rubble of Bedford Castle when it was demolished in 1224. In 1765 both gatehouses were removed as they hindered coach traffic across the bridge. There were also frequent problems with flooding. In 1803 the bridge was described as "very ancient, narrow, inconvenient and dangerous".

John Wing of Bedford designed the new bridge. Work on the bridge began on the 26th April 1811 and the bridge was completed at a cost of 15,137 and opened for public use on the 1st November 1813. At first tolls were charged but this practice was abolished in 1835. With the increase in the volume of traffic by the 1930s plans were drawn up to widen the bridge which started in 1938 and was completed by 1940, the bridge was widened in concrete along the western side. In the early 1980's repairs to the stonework of the bridge were carried out using Portland stone for the architectural details and Clipstone stone for the spandrel walls.

Dan stopped to feed the swans and ducks some of his lunch.

One swan decided Dan's fingers looked tasty :)

We walk on passing Bedford's Rowing Club as we approached Bedford Town Bridge.

Despite Bedford Regatta having been founded in 1853, there is no record of any rowing clubs in Bedford until 1886. Bedford Rowing Club was founded on 15 March 1886.

Rear of Bedford's Magistrates Court across the river.

We cross The Bedford Riverside Bridge to the other bank and follow this along, Charter Walk and onto Queens Walk.

The riverside appearance changes quickly after you pass the main town and is run down somewhat and covered in graffiti. We walk on and under the Railway Line to Queens Bridge at Kempston and we follow a path inland.

At the top of the path we reach the Sikh Guru Nanak Gurdwara Temple.

It is one of the first Gurdwara in UK which was designed and completed according to traditional architecture and materials.

The complex has 2 prayer halls and 1 langar hall with adjoining kitchen. The complex also includes community centre which has its own kitchen and other amenities

Sadly the doors were locked, would have been nice to have a look inside,

We follow the Ford End Road and almost opposite the Sikh Temple is the Muslim Mosque,

Gulshan-e-Baghdad Masjid.

Further up the road we divert off the Ford End Road up Havelock Street to visit The Eagle Brewery, rather disappointed to find no taproom or even a shop!

Officially opened as the Eagle Brewery on 18 May 1976 by the Duke of Gloucester, the brewing facility originally formed part of the Charles Wells' estate. As well as a portfolio of much-loved Eagle branded beers, the brewery also boasts exclusive contracts to brew some of the most popular names in the industry.

We walk on into Town crossing back over the Railway Bridge, along Midland Road, crossing River Street and back onto Midland Road into the main shopping centre.

We stop in the Caffé Amore on Midland Street and have a breakfast bap with two bacon, two sausage, egg with chips and coffee, all for £5.50! Far cheaper than London prices!! The café was full of some interesting characters that provided some funny entertainment. I then used the toilet up a grubby staircase and got to watch the Bedfordshire constabulary perform a stop and search in the car park below. Non stop free entertainment at this café!

We walk on up the road and turn right into Harpur Street. The Harpur Centre sits within Bedford town centre north of the river. It was home to Bedford Modern School before the majority of the building was demolished in 1970 to make way for the shopping centre in its current guise.

The school’s east facade was designed by Edward Blore, who is most notable for his work on Buckingham Palace. It was retained and is Grade II listed, sitting within a conservation area defined by its medieval origins and collection of Georgian and Victorian architecture.

The facade is well-known and well-regarded by Bedford residents, so a key component of our design was to safeguard and enhance the area’s distinctive character and appearance.

Such a great looking building wasn't expecting a shopping centre inside!

Across the road is the Harpur Suite. The Harpur Suite was built in 1834 as the town's Assembly Rooms and originally housed the General Library and Literary and Scientific Institute, before being renamed the Harpur Suite in 1972.

Bedford's charter dates back over 900 years to 1166.

It remained a small market town with wool being its main industry throughout the Middle Ages.

As wool declined, brewing took over as the main industry.

In the 1560s the influx of Flemish and Huguenot lacemakers developed this new trade which remained an important business until the late 19th century.

We wander up the road to St Pauls Church sitting in St Pauls Square.

St. Paul's is a "hall church" in Perpendicular Gothic style and an intriguing mix of modern and medieval. Some of the church fabric originated with Newnham Abbey (c 1165). The spire is 18th century, replacing the original 14th-century structure, and sits atop a crenellated crossing tower.

A hall church is a church whose aisles rise to the same height as the nave, creating a long, wide, open interior space.

In the interior, the oldest features are the quatrefoil windows on the south arcade, which date to 1300. The north arcade is a sympathetic copy, though it dates only to 1884. Contemporary with the quatrefoil windows are the four columns which support the tower crossing.

The choir and sanctuary may also date to the 13th century, but the choir fittings are clever late Victorian restorations incorporating bits and pieces of older wood. The misericords and armrests are nicely carved.

Pride of place in the church interior must, however, go to the memorial for Simon de Beauchamp (1208), founder of Newnham Priory. The tomb lies just south of the altar. Look for the place where a funerary brass originally graced the tomb. It is gone now but had it remained in place it would have been the oldest in Britain.

On the south side of the choir are more notably monuments. That of Sir William Harpur (1573) shows the former Lord Mayor of London with his mayoral robes covering a suit of armour.

Both John Bunyan and John Wesley preached from the stone pulpit by the northwest tower arch. The rood screen is a wonderful piece of early 20th century carving in the Gothic style, and the font combines a medieval base with a Victorian basin.

We entered the church and Dan spoke to a volunteer in the church and mentioned we were visiting from Essex. She said she was from Essex some 40 years ago, Wanstead no less which is obviously now London. She spoke in a posh accent and I found it amusing to listen to Dan talk back in his fake posh accent!!

On the way out I asked what is a must see in Bedford as I didn't want to miss anything. I was told the church is the highlight of Bedford and had we seen the river!

We left and walked up St Pauls Square passing the Bedford Corn Exchange, now a events and concert venue.

The building (constructed in 1874) was designed to be a concert venue and meeting space, as well as a place of business. The basement contained offices, cloakrooms, kitchen, hall keepers room, and dining rooms. The build took two years and the total cost was £9,000. It replaced the "Floral Hall" building across St Paul's Square which had been constructed in 1849.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra used the Corn Exchange between September 1941 and July 1945 for public concerts which were broadcast to the nation. The BBC Music and Religious Departments moved to Bedford when it became too dangerous for them to be based in London or their wartime home, Bristol. Around 400 musicians, staff, and engineers moved to the town during World War Two.

In 1944, the BBC Proms came to Bedford. Since their birth, they had been performed in The Queen's Hall in London, which was destroyed by bombs on 10 May 1941. They moved to the Royal Albert Hall until that too became in danger and they transferred to the Corn Exchange for the rest of the 1944 season. The Corn Exchange played host to many star names during World War Two, including Glenn Miller, Bing Crosby, Marlene Dietrich, Vera Lynn, Bob Hope, Humphrey Bogart, Gracie Fields, David Niven, and Yehudi Menuhin. During this time, the Corn Exchange was also used as an Armed Forces Canteen.

We turn right onto the High Street and pass the John Howard Statue.

The statue of John Howard, in St Pauls's Square, Bedford, is a bronze of John Howard, erected in 1890, the centenary of Howard's death. The statue is "clothed ... in the travelling dress of the time to denote he was a great traveller."

John Howard (1726–1790), born in North London (either Hackney or Enfield), was brought up in Cardington, Bedfordshire, where his father's property was. In 1773 he became High Sheriff of Bedfordshire and, upon discovering the state of the prisons, began a lifelong work of reform, spending a large part of his wealth and a great deal of time travelling over 50,000 miles investigating and reporting on the conditions of prisons across Britain and later Europe.

The House of Commons heard his evidence on several occasions. In 1777 he published State of the Prisons in England and Wales, and an Account of some Foreign Prisons. He died in 1790, camp fever while travelling in southern Russia.

Howard was active in the non-conformist movement in Bedford and is also commemorated locally in Howard House, where he stayed, and in the Howard Chapel which, in 1772, he helped to found.

The Howard League for Penal Reform is named after him.

We cross the High Street and up Castle Lane.

We reach The Higgins, Bedford. A museum is based here but closed on a Monday!

The site at Castle Lane, the Higgins family and the development of the art gallery and museum are intrinsically linked. Charles Higgins and his family moved to Bedford in the 1820s, founding the brewery at Castle Lane and building the family home next to it. The family business was very successful and they were important, influential figures within the town for over a hundred years. The brewery remained in the Higgins family until the late 1920s when Cecil Higgins, then over seventy, decided to sell it to Wells & Winch Ltd. in order to focus on his ambition to found a museum.

Whilst the Higgins name is not as synonymous with Bedford as Bunyan, Harpur or Howard, the family fits well within this line of philanthropists. As well as founding the brewery, Charles Higgins (c.1789-1862) was a successful Liberal politician and Mayor of Bedford. During his tenure as Mayor he was presented with a silver salver (now on display in the Mayor's Parlour) recording the "zeal, ability and humanity extended by him" during the cholera epidemic of 1849.

Following Charles Higgins' lead, the Higgins family remained devoted to Bedford life. George Higgins (1816-1883), Cecil's father, was a Justice of the Peace, a member of the Town Council and a Trustee of the Harpur Charity. Lawrence (1849-1930), Cecil's brother, was also a Justice of the Peace, and Cecil (1856-1941) was a local magistrate for many years.

Cecil ran the family business for many years but devoted his later life to collecting fine and decorative arts with the aim of founding a museum "for the benefit, interest and education of the inhabitants of, and visitors to Bedford". Cecil Higgins Art Gallery opened in 1949 in the house that had been Cecil's family home. Bedford Museum moved into the former Higgins & Sons Brewery building in 1981.

Across from the Museum is the mound on which Bedford Castle once sat.

The history of Bedford goes all the way back to 796 AD when King Offa of Mercia was buried in the town.

In 919 AD Edward the Elder built a fortress on the south side of the river, on the frontier between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes.

The early fortress was destroyed by the Danes but Paine de Beauchamp built a stronger castle.

This too was razed in 1224 and only the hilly motte remains today.

The secret chamber is a disused 19th century icehouse below the Castle Mound.

We walk up on top of the castle mound.

Built after 1100 by Henry I, the castle played a prominent part in both the civil war of the Anarchy and the First Barons' War. The castle was significantly extended in stone, although the final plan of the castle remains uncertain. Henry III of England besieged the castle in 1224 following a disagreement with Falkes de Breauté; the siege lasted eight weeks and involved an army of as many as 2,700 soldiers with equipment drawn from across England. After the surrender of the castle, the king ordered its destruction (slighting).

Although partially refortified in the 17th century during the English Civil War, the castle remained a ruin until the urban expansion in Bedford during the 19th century, when houses were built across much of the property. Today only part of the motte still stands, forming part of an archaeological park built on the site between 2007 and 2009.

Siege of 1224

Henry III decided that Bedford Castle should be returned to its original owner, William de Beauchamp, and became increasingly frustrated with Falkes' refusal to do so; matters came to a head when Falkes' castellans imprisoned Henry of Braybrooke, a royal judge who was hearing law cases against Falkes. When Falkes refused to release the judge, Henry mobilised an army, supported by the Church in the form of Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and advanced to Bedford. Falkes had left the castle, along with around eighty men, in charge of his brother, William de Breauté, who refused to surrender it to the king. Falkes was probably hoping that if the castle held on long enough, his efforts to convince Pope Honorius III to intervene against Henry would succeed. The Archbishop excommunicated William and the siege began.

The siege of Bedford Castle required huge resources. Siege engines were brought from Lincoln, Northampton and Oxfordshire, while carpenters built others on site using timber from Northamptonshire; ropes from London, Cambridge and Southampton; hides from Northampton and tallow from London. Labourers from across Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire were gathered by the relevant sheriffs, and miners from Hereford and the Forest of Dean. Crossbow bolts were ordered from a depot at Corfe Castle and from the provinces; 43,300 crossbow bolts are known to have been ordered by the king. Local trees were cut down, and stone quarrying begun to provide ammunition for siege engines. Tents and pavilions for the King were sent from London along with supplies of luxury foods and wine, also for the King. In total, Henry's wage bill for the siege came to £1,311; it is uncertain exactly how large Henry's army was, but potentially there were between 1,600 and 2,700 men present at any one time. To support the siege, Langton instructed his bishops to mobilise one man from every 24 hectares (60 acres) of land they owned and levied a special tax on the churches' estates.

With these resources, Henry erected a number of siege engines around the castle; one probable trebuchet and two mangonels were set up to the east of the castle; two mangonels were placed on the west side, to attack the keep, and one mangonel on both the north and south sides. Two siege-castles were established to observe the occupants of the castle. William was confident, however, that either his brother would return and relieve the siege, or that the pope would intervene, and held on despite the artillery attacks. The losses in the royal army began to mount; chronicler Ralph of Coggeshall suggests that seven knights, and over 200 soldiers and labourers were killed as the siege dragged on.

Bedford Castle finally fell through a sequence of four attacks. Royal forces first captured the barbican and then stormed the outer bailey, seizing most of the castle's supplies but taking considerable losses. Miners, operating under the protection of a "cat", then gained access to the inner bailey by collapsing part of the wall. Finally, on 14 August, the miners attacked the keep itself, lighting a fire under the walls, cracking the stone and filling the building with smoke. The female members of the household, including Falkes' wife, and Henry de Braybrooke were released, the royal standard was raised over the tower, and the next day William and the garrison surrendered.

A discussion ensued about the fate of the garrison; near contemporary accounts suggest that the prisoners asked the Archbishop for assistance, but that this was declined. Henry then had all the male members of the garrison hanged, except for three knights who agreed to join the military order of the Knights Templar. Three days after the fall of Bedford Castle, the Pope wrote a letter demanding that Henry cease his campaign against Falkes, but this intervention had occurred far too late to be of use. Alexander de Stavenby, the Bishop of Coventry, convinced Falkes to surrender after the fall of the castle; he handed over his remaining castles at Plympton and Storgursey and was absolved by Langton, going into exile shortly afterwards. Historian R. Brown has noted that the 1224 siege of Bedford Castle was remarkable in that the castle's garrison was able to hold out against "the concentrated military resources of the whole kingdom" for an impressive eight weeks. David Carpenter argues that the fall of Bedford castle "concluded the triumph of central government" over the previously uncontrollable forces of the local barons.

We walk back off the mound back onto The Embankment and follow this back towards where we started the walk.

We pass the Embankment Hotel with its bar, considered getting a drink in there but looked far too posh for two walkers. Maybe Dan could have practised his posh voice a bit more though!

We walk on passing the Bedford Suspension Bridge.

The Suspension Bridge was constructed in 1888 to provide access from The Embankment to Mill Meadows, which Bedford Corporation had purchased in 1883. At first a low flat girder bridge was proposed but this would have obstructed river traffic. John James Webster whose design allowed sailing boats to pass underneath built the bridge. Webster also built Prebend Street Bridge and several seaside piers. The opening ceremony was performed by the Marquis of Tavistock who on the same day also opened Bedford Park. A large part of the cost of 500 was raised by public subscription.

In 1983 the bridge was closed for repairs with the restoration work being carried out by the Bedford firm of C.A.E.C. Howard at a cost of £32,000. The bridge was re-opened again in March 1984.

We turn off and walk up Bushmead Avenue and turn right onto Castle Road and up to The Gordon Arms.

We stop for a beer or two. I had the Brewpoint Checkpoint and On Point. Its now Dan says oh yeah Brewpoint I remember seeing the brewery is in Bedford. The barman said its not too far. We check and I decide we'll finish the walk and drive to the brewery for a visit.

We finish our beers and walk on and then turn right down York Street onto Russell Avenue passing an old Austin Car.

We walk through Russell Park and back onto The Embankment.

We reach Newnham Bridge and use the subway next to it to walk under Newnham Avenue.

The old Newnham Bridge much repaired over the years stood on the site of the present concrete bridge and spanned that part of the river which once served as the Mill Race for Newnham Priory Mill with the mill pond later becoming Newnham Baths.

The old rustic wooden bridge was swept away in a flood in 1936 and was replaced by the present concrete structure now dwarfed by the Inner Relief Road.

We follow the path beside the river and cross the Western Allen Footbridge and come out opposite the site of The Priory Fishponds again. We walk over there and follow the path to the Marina.

We turn left up a path alongside an old wall with the Finger lakes on our right.

Dan stops to feed the swans, geese and ducks again.

We arrive back at the car after a 7.2 mile walk. We pull off our boots and drive to the

Brewpoint Brewery.

2017 – A fresh start. Charles Wells sells Havelock St brewery and most of our beer brands to Marston’s, signalling a move away from higher-volume national sales and a renewed focus on specialty ale and lager brands to delight modern beer fans. The deal also provided us with the resources needed to begin designing the new home of our dreams- now known as Brewpoint.

2019 – Work begins on our new home, Brewpoint, in Fairhill in western Bedford. So much more than just a brewery, Brewpoint is a £14m investment in our future, a statement of confidence about the direction of our fifth-generation family business, and our new home.