Stewartby is a model 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 ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

, originally built for the workers of the

London Brick Company The London Brick Company, owned by Forterra plc, is a leading British manufacturer of bricks. History The London Brick Company owes its origins to John Cathles Hill, a developer-architect who built houses in London and Peterborough. In 1889, ...

. The village was designed and built to the plans of the company's architect Mr F W Walker, laid out on ‘Garden City’ principle, a later and more modern development than such better-known Victorian model villages as Saltaire. Started in 1926, Stewartby also is a later model than

Woodlands Woodlands may back refer to: * Woodland, a low-density forest Geography Australia * Woodlands, New South Wales * Woodlands, Ashgrove, Queensland, a heritage-listed house associated with John Henry Pepper * Woodlands, Marburg, Queensland, a her ...

which was first planned in 1905. The later retirement bungalow development of the 1950s and 1960s with the pavilion community centre in their midst was designed by the neo-Georgian architect Professor Sir

Albert Richardson Sir Albert Edward Richardson (London, 19 May 1880 – 3 February 1964) was a leading English architect, teacher and writer about architecture during the first half of the 20th century. He was Professor of Architecture at University College Lon ...

. Today, Stewartby parish also includes

Kempston Hardwick Kempston Hardwick is a small village on the edge of the town of Kempston in Bedfordshire, England. Historically it was one of the hamlets or "ends" scattered across the parish of Kempston. It is served by Kempston Hardwick railway station on the ...

Brickworks

Originally two Wootton farming settlements, Wootton Pillinge and neighbouring Wootton Broadmead, the Wootton Pillinge LBC village was in 1936 renamed Stewartby, taking its new name from the Stewart family, directors of London Brick Company since 1900. The family's son

Sir Malcolm Stewart Sir Percy Malcolm Stewart, 1st Baronet (9 May 1872 – 27 February 1951), was an English industrialist and philanthropist. He incorporated The London Brick Company in the 1920s which was at the time reputed to be the largest brick making comp ...

had amalgamated LBC with the Forders Company in the village in the 1920s. Stewartby was the largest brickworks in terms of output in the world. The site closed in 2008 as the owners,

Hanson Hanson or Hansson may refer to: People * Hanson (surname) * Hansson (surname) * Hanson (wrestler), ringname of an American professional wrestler Musical groups * Hanson (band), an American pop rock band * Hanson (UK band), an English rock ...

, could not meet UK limits for sulphur dioxide emissions. The four chimneys remaining were due to be demolished upon closure but these have since been listed for preservation of Bedfordshire's brick-related history and will remain, this has since changed and the chimneys were demolished on 26th September 2021. The brickworks was home to the world's biggest

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

and produced 18 million bricks at the height of production. BJ Forder & Son opened its first

brickworks A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for ...

in Elstow in 1897 before relocating to Wootton Pillinge in 1920. Wootton Pillinge was renamed Stewartby in 1937 in recognition of the Stewart family who had been instrumental in developing the brickworks. The firm became London Brick Company and Forders Limited in 1926, and shortened to London Brick Company in 1936. At the height of the industry's production there were 167 brick chimneys in the Marston Vale. There were four chimneys in Stewartby, but these were demolished in 2021. In the 1970s Bedfordshire produced 20% of England's bricks. At its peak London Brick Company had its own ambulance and fire crews, a horticultural department and a photographic department, as well as its own swimming pool inside the factory, and ran a number of sports clubs. More than £1 million was spent on Stewartby Brickworks in 2005–7 in an attempt to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions. The factory used Lower

Oxford Clay 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 Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the ...

, which contains circa 5% marine organics, formed 150 million years ago when it was on the sea bed. This reduced the coal requirement, as the organic material burned. Stewartby Brickworks closed in May 2008. In 2021, it was announced that the four remaining chimneys, were to be demolished, as the land owners deemed them unsafe, they were later demolished in September 2021. The chimneys were demolished on 26th September 2021 at 11:15am.

Infrastructure

Stewartby has a railway station on the Marston Vale Line. The village was to have been the planned location for the proposed

National Institute for Research into Aquatic Habitats The National Institute for Research into Aquatic Habitats (commonly abbreviated as NIRAH) was a planned freshwater public aquarium in Stewartby, Bedfordshire. Originally sited at a 100 hectare (250 acre) location, with an expected cost of £35 ...

(NIRAH). This project was scrapped in June 2015 due to lack of investment funding. The new housing development is called Hanson's Reach. Phase one involves 750 new houses being built. It is planned to construct a very large waste incinerator in an abandoned clay pit next to the village.

Education

Kimberley College Kimberley College (also known as STEM College) is a free school sixth form centre that opened in Stewartby, Bedfordshire, England in April 2014. The college is operated by Wootton Academy Trust, who also operate Wootton Upper School. Kimberl ...

is a

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

centre which opened in Stewartby in September 2013. There is a lower school in Stewartby called Broadmead Lower School, which was opened in 1965. The middle school is Marston Vale, which takes in children from the surrounding area.

Sport and leisure

Stewartby has been home to Stewartby Village Football Club since 1999. In the 2009/10 season it was in the Bedfordshire County League Division 4. Stewartby is also home to Stewartby Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society which has been putting on performances of concerts and Gilbert and Sullivan operettas since 1951. There is a large park in Stewartby which has a new slide and zip wire. There are plans to extend the park. A BMX track has been built behind the club house. The railway in Stewartby was opened in 1905 and used to form part of the

Varsity Line The Varsity Line (or the Oxford to Cambridge railway line) was the main railway route that once linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated by the London and North Western Railway. During World War II the line was ...

, from Oxford to Cambridge. There are plans to reopen the closed parts of the line under the

East West Rail East West Rail is a major project to establish a strategic railway connecting East Anglia with Central, Southern and Western England. In particular, it plans to build (or rebuild) a line linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Milton Keyn ...

scheme. The line now sees an hourly service Monday to Saturday between Bedford and Bletchley, operated by

London Northwestern Railway West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trade names: West Midlands Railway (WMR) (within the ...

using Class 230 trains. The lake is home to Stewartby Water Sports Club, a not for profit organisation which promotes Angling, Power Boat Racing, Sailing, Wakeboarding and Waterskiing. There are also opportunities for open-water swimming, paddleboarding, canoeing and wind-surfing which are organised from within the club.

References

External links

2001 Census - Parish Profile for Stewartby

Stewartby pages
at 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 ...