Marston Moretaine
General History
Places > Marston Moretaine > General History
Kelly's Directory of Bedfordshire 1894 (Extract)
Marston Morteyne (or Marston Moretaine) is a village, parish and railway station, and was formerly a market town, 4 miles north-west from Ampthill and 7 miles south-west from Bedford in the Northern division of the county, hundred of Redbornestoke, petty sessional division, union and county court district of Ampthill, rural deanery of Fleete, archdeaconry of Bedford and diocese of Ely. The station here, on the Bedford and Bletchley branch of the London and North western railway, is usually called the Millbrook station. The church of St Mary is a large and ancient edifice, in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, and a massive Perpendicular tower, standing about 50 feet from the church, and containing 5 bells: in the chancel are brasses to the Snagge family; there is a fine marble monument in the south aisle chancel chapel to Sir Thomas Snagge, Speaker of the House of Commons in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; the interior has been restored and will seat 600 persons. The register dates from the year 1703. Here are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels.
The Duke of Bedford, who is lord of the manor, and Alexander Gordon esq. are the chief landowners. The soil is clay; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley and beans. the area is 4,079 acres; rateable value, £6,607; the population in 1891 was 1,047.
Marston Pillinge, Upper and Lower Shelton, Wood End, Wroxhill and Wootton Green are parts of this parish.
Parish Clerk, John Two.
Post Office - John Two, sub-postmaster.
Police Station, Alfred Baldwin, constable.
A School Board of 5 members was formed Feb 16th 1880; Charles Stimson, 26 Mill Street, Bedford, clerk to the board; Esau Denton, attendance officer. Schools:-Board (formerly National), Church End, built in 1847, for 140 children; average attendance 90; Goldthorpe Squire, master; Mrs Squire, assistant mistress. Board, Shelton (mixed), erected in 1880, and enlarged in 1893, for 90 children; average attendance in excess of present space; Miss Ellen Higgs, mistress.
Railway Station, Cornelius Theobald, station master.
