Husborne Crawley is a small village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
in Bedfordshire, England, located close to Junction 13 of the
M1 motorway
The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...
. The village touches the borders of the
Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey (), occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, ...
estate on one side, and the village of
Aspley Guise
Aspley Guise is a village and civil parish in the west of Central Bedfordshire, England. In addition to the village of Aspley Guise itself, the civil parish also includes part of the town of Woburn Sands, the rest of which is in the City of Milto ...
on the other. The meaning of the Husborne element of the towns name is "warrior stream" and the Crawley element means "crow clearing".
It appears as Hussheburn Crawele, in 1421.
Village
![Husborne Crawley 20th Century Map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Husborne_Crawley_20th_Century_Map.png)
In the 1870s Crawley-Husborne was described as "a parish in Woburn district, Beds; on the Bedford and Bletchley railway, ¾ mile SW of Ridgmount r. station, and 1¾ NNE of Woburn."
St. James' Church which is located on School Lane, is the parish church of St. Mary, with work on the church being dated as early as the 13th century. The church has a tower with three bays, western tower with six chiming bells and clock face, and has been subject to various changes throughout its history, with one of the most substantial changes occurring at around the 15th century.
It has a nineteenth-century
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
in its own grounds, known as Crawley Park. The Crawley Park estate is privately owned, and features some preserved and listed wooden-framed medieval cottages. The village also has The White Horse
public house
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...
, which is described as "A substantial corner pub on the main road through the village, it consists of a single U-shape room wrapped around a central bar counter along with some outside picnic benches".
Other amenities in the village include Husborne Crawley
Lower School which was built by The Duke of Bedford in 1867, and was set up to ensure that the poorer families who worked on the estates, could have educated children. Husborne Crawley also has a
village hall
A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as:
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...
, called "The Reading Room", which is used by the community for meetings, social gatherings and parties.
History
The parish is first mentioned in a document of 969 setting out the boundaries of
Aspley Guise
Aspley Guise is a village and civil parish in the west of Central Bedfordshire, England. In addition to the village of Aspley Guise itself, the civil parish also includes part of the town of Woburn Sands, the rest of which is in the City of Milto ...
, by its original name of Hysseburnan.
Within the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
which was commissioned by
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
(1066–1087), found that the parish of Husborne Crawley was divided into two manors.
The parish was still considered two areas in the Middle Ages, one called Crawley and the other Husborne Crawley, the first was considered to be in the south part of the parish and the other to be the northern part.
The parish of covers an area of 1,610½ acres, with a large portion (863 acres) of it being open grassland and also a large amount of arable land (414 acres).
Population
![Husborne Crawley Population Time Series 1801-2011](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Husborne_Crawley_Population_Time_Series_1801-2011.jpg)
Husborne Crawley has a population of 237 according to the 2011 census.
Increasing from a population of 217 according to the 2001 census.
From the graph, the total population has changed large amounts for a small parish, decreasing more recently possibly due to people moving closer to larger local areas such as
Milton Keynes,
Leighton-Linslade or
Dunstable
Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the ...
as they are the larger settlements in the area. There are some gaps in the information as none was available, however clearly there has been a general decrease until very recently where the population has increased again. The changes have not been large enough and are more gradual to be from an event that might alter populations rapidly.
Economy
![Occupation Chart for Husbourne Crawley 1881](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Occupation_Chart_for_Husbourne_Crawley_1881.jpg)
![Occupation Chart for Husbourne Crawley 2011](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Occupation_Chart_for_Husbourne_Crawley_2011.jpg)
The population and their occupations have changed vastly over time, as land use has changed and as the demographic of the population has changed also. From the occupations shown in the graph of 1881, they were mostly employed in agriculture and manufacturing, with very few of the occupants having jobs with professional titles, or working in offices or commercial companies. The population as of 2011 had occupations that are more professional, office workers, and managers. The occupations that require manual labour still exist but are often more skilled trades or machine operators.
Throughout the history of the parish its main industry has been agriculture, yields crops of wheat, barley and beans come from the areas very rich soil base.
Transport
The
M1 Motorway
The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...
is Husborne Crawley's main transport infrastructure, and is about one mile north-east on the Bedford Road heading eastbound from a roundabout due north of the village, accessible via the roundabout system at junction 13. Here, the Bedford Road also goes north to meet the
A421 at a roundabout, which goes north-west to reach
Milton Keynes, and north-east to reach
Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
, the centres of which are about away, and away respectively.
Husborne Crawley is served by
Ridgmont railway station
Ridgmont railway station is a small unstaffed railway station that serves the village of Ridgmont in Bedfordshire. The station is about away from Ridgmont on the other side of the M1 Motorway, (beside Junction 13), Brogborough and Husborne ...
which is located away on the other side of the M1 Motorway at Junction 13.
London Midland
London Midland was a train operating company in England which operated the West Midlands franchise between 11 November 2007 and 10 December 2017. It was owned by the British transport group Govia.
London Midland was created as a result of Gov ...
trains serve the station, which also acts as a transport route for workers at an
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...
warehouse which is located on the other side of the M1.
There are 7 local bus services that run from Husborne Crawley, the largest operator is
Centrebus which operates three of the seven main services.
Geology
The geology of Husborne Crawley is made up of greensand sandstone, although there are areas of mudstone layered within the sandstone which is part of the
Oxford Clay Formation
The Oxford Clay (or Oxford Clay Formation) is a Jurassic marine sedimentary rock formation underlying much of southeast England, from as far west as Dorset and as far north as Yorkshire. The Oxford Clay Formation dates to the Jurassic, specifica ...
. The soil is therefore mostly sandy and partially clay, with some smaller areas of mixed soil including; sand, alluvium, gravel, clay and silt.
References
External links
Husborne Crawley pagesat the
Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service
The Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service is a county record office, holding archival material associated with Bedfordshire and Luton. Established in 1913 by George Herbert Fowler (1861-1940) as the Bedfordshire Record Office, it wa ...
{{authority control
Villages in Bedfordshire
Civil parishes in Bedfordshire
Central Bedfordshire District