Roxton 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Borough of Bedford Bedford, or the Borough of Bedford, is a Districts of England, local government district with borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It is administered by Bedford Borough Council, ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

, England about north-east of the county town of

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

. The 2011 census gives the population of Roxton as 348.

History

In the 1970s, a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

barrow cemetery in the form of five

ring ditch In archaeology, a ring ditch is a trench of circular or penannular plan, cut into bedrock. They are usually identified through aerial photography either as soil marks or cropmarks. When excavated, ring ditches are usually found to be the ploughed� ...

es was excavated prior to gravel extraction. Two urned primary cremation burials were found. The site, near to the Ouse, is now a lake. Archaeological evidence of Romano-British occupation was found in trenches dug in 2007 east of the Black Cat roundabout. Roxton is mentioned in 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

. The entry reads: ''Rochesdone/stone: Rhiwallon from Hugh de Beauchamp; William Speke. Mill (260 eels).'' The hamlets of

Chawston Chawston is a hamlet in the civil parish of Wyboston, Chawston and Colesden, a part of the Borough of Bedford in the county of Bedfordshire, England. Although mainly situated on the western side of the A1 trunk road, the settlement does hav ...

and Colesden were part of Roxton civil parish until 1 April 2007, when they together with

Wyboston Wyboston is a village in the English county of Bedfordshire, close to the town of St Neots and the Cambridgeshire border. The eastern part of the village is dominated by the A1 Great North Road. Approaching the Black Cat roundabout from the ...

(part of Roxton parish from 1965) separated to form a new civil parish.

Governance

Roxton Parish Council has seven elected members and meets bi-monthly in the parish hall. Roxton is part of Wyboston ward for elections to the

Unitary Authority. Prior to 1894, Roxton was administered as part of the Barford Hundred. From 1894 until 1974 the village was in

Bedford Rural District Bedford Rural District was a rural district in Bedfordshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It surrounded but did not include the Municipal Borough of Bedford and Kempston Urban District. Evolution The district had its origins in the Bedford Rura ...

and since 1974 in Bedford Borough. The village was in Bedford parliamentary constituency until 1997. It is now part of

North East Bedfordshire North East Bedfordshire was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2024. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was abolishe ...

Geography

Roxton is southwest of

St Neots St NeotsPronunciation of the town name: Most commonly, but variations that ''saint'' is said as in most English non-georeferencing speech, the ''t'' is by a small minority of the British pronounced and higher traces of in the final syllable ...

, west of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

and north of

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

. The civil parish covers an area of . Roxton Lock - geograph

The River

Great Ouse The River Great Ouse ( ) is a river in England, 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 ...

forms the parish's eastern and most of its southern boundary, and the A421 road its western. The village centre is above sea level. The whole parish is low lying and flat.

Landscape

The village lies within the Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Claylands as designated by

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

. Bedford Borough Council classifies the local landscape as the Great Ouse Clay Valley. The surrounding area is mostly arable farmland. Roxton Park is an area of grassland dotted with mature trees. There are lakes formed from old sand and gravel pits in the southeast corner of the parish by the Ouse. A sand and gravel quarry is being worked east of the Black Cat roundabout by Breedon Aggregates.

Geology and soil type

The village lies mainly on third terrace

river gravel River gravel is a name given to gravel composed of small pieces of rounded stone of various colors, usually no larger than a large coin. It is named for the effect of many years of rounding of the edges of the stones due to a flow of water over ...

Boulder clay Boulder clay is an unsorted agglomeration of clastic sediment that is unstratified and structureless and contains gravel of various sizes, shapes, and compositions distributed at random in a fine-grained matrix. The fine-grained matrix consists o ...

is to the south and west, and first and second terrace river gravel to the east.

Alluvium Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

borders the Great Ouse. Underlying these

superficial deposits Superficial deposits (or surficial deposits) refer to geological deposits typically of Quaternary age (less than 2.6 million years old) for the Earth. These geologically recent unconsolidated sediments may include stream channel and floodplain dep ...

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 and as far north as Yorkshire. The Oxford Clay Formation dates to the Jurassic, specific ...

and Kellaways beds. Around the village the soil has low fertility, is freely draining and slightly acid with a

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...

y texture. The southwestern part of the parish has highly fertile, lime-rich loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage. By the Great Ouse are loamy and clayey

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

soils with naturally high groundwater.

Light pollution

Light pollution Light pollution is the presence of any unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting sources, during the ...

is the level of radiance (night lights) shining up into the night sky. The

Campaign to Protect Rural England Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar produ ...

(CPRE) divides the level of night sky brightness into 9 bands with band 1 being the darkest i.e. with the lowest level of light pollution and band 9 the brightest and most polluted. Roxton in band 5 and 6 is adversely affected by lighting along the A1/A421 Black Cat roundabout. The night sky is darker looking northwest.

A1 road bridges

The A1 northbound carriageway is carried over the Ouse by a sandstone bridge built in October 1820. Listing particulars state the bridge to be about long and wide. There are three broad, low arches built with blocks of

Bramley Fall stone Bramley Fall Stone belongs to the Millstone Grit series, of the Namurian stage of the Carboniferous Period. It is one of the cheapest and best-adapted English stones for extensive engineering works, docks, locks and railways, and for large mill ...

from a quarry near Leeds. A rounded towpath archway passes through the east abutment. A sandstone parapet rests on a projecting stone string course. Except where replaced by concrete, Bramley Fall stone copings run the length of the bridge. Inscriptions of masons can be seen on the inside face of the copings over the crown of the centre arch. Flood bridges to the east and west have seven smaller and lower segmental brick arches. A separate bridge was built for the southbound carriageway when the road was dualled in the early 1960s.

Public footpaths

The

Ouse Valley Way The Ouse Valley Way is a footpath in England, following the River Great Ouse from its source near Syresham in Northamptonshire to its mouth in The Wash near King's Lynn. The path begins outside the King's Head pub in Syresham and ends on t ...

passes through the village and runs alongside the Ouse to the south and east.

Village facilities

The ''Royal Oak'' public house has been licensed since at least 1819. A post office is in a courtyard to the rear. Roxton CE

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

caters for up to 90 girls and boys aged from 3 to 11 years and is governed locally under the auspices of The Diocese of St Albans Multi-Academy Trust. The school buildings date from 1963. Roxton Garden Centre on Bedford Road includes a restaurant and maze.

Public transport

Roxton is served by the regional

Stagecoach X5 Stagecoach X5 is an inter-urban bus service linking Oxford and Bedford via Bicester, Buckingham and Milton Keynes Service started in 1992 with an hourly service between Oxford and Cambridge, which was increased to half-hourly in 2005; new vehi ...

bus route; east to St Neots and Cambridge and west to Bedford,

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

and

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. The nearest railway stations are

Sandy Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Sandy (surname), a list of people * Sandy (Iranian music band), Iranian singer, comp ...

and

Church and chapel

Roxton church from the south east - geograph

The

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene dates from the 14th century and is built of rich brown cobblestones with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. The 15th century western tower is single–stage with northeast and southwest buttresses to an embattled parapet. There is a ring of five bells; the oldest are dated 1591 and 1607. The church is in the Biggleswade Deanery and the

Diocese of St Albans The Diocese of St Albans forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England and is part of the wider Church of England, in turn part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese is home to more than 1.6 million people and comprises the hi ...

. Along with the ecclesiastical parishes of Blunham, Great Barford and Tempsford with Little Barford, Roxton is part of the ''Riversmeet

Benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

''.

Roxton Congregational Chapel Geograph-2583860-by-Dennis-simpson

The Roxton Congregational Chapel, also Grade II* listed, originates from 1808, when meetings were held in a barn. The chapel was formerly established in 1822 and the barn converted into a thatched

Cottage orné dates back to a movement of "rustic" stylised cottages of the late 18th and early 19th centuries during the Romantic movement, when some sought to discover a more natural way of living as opposed to the formality of the preceding Baroque and Neo ...

style chapel. In the 1830s two wings were added; one for the vestry and the other for the village school and Sunday School. The chapel is an independent Christian church affiliated to the

Congregational Federation The Congregational Federation is a small Christian denomination in Great Britain comprising 235 congregations, down from 294 in April 2014. The Federation brings together Congregational churches, and provides support and guidance to member churc ...

. The Church had a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

until at least 1947 but nowadays external preachers come from a variety of denominations. Administration of the church is by three, annually elected, voluntary

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...

s. Decision–making is by Church members through the Church meeting.

Community events

Roxton Flower Show is held annually in August. According to the Parish Council website the 2019 show was the 65th such event.

Notable people

Wayne Larkins Wayne Larkins (born 22 November 1953) is an English former cricketer, who represented Northamptonshire, Durham and Bedfordshire as an opening batsman throughout his career. He was selected to play for England as Graham Gooch's opening partner ...

, a former Northamptonshire and England cricketer was born in Roxton.

References

External links

Roxton Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Bedfordshire Civil parishes in Bedfordshire Borough of Bedford