Slip End is a 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 ...

Central Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire is a Districts of England, local government district in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It is administered by Central Bedfordshire Council, a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority. It was created ...

, England. The village is very close to

Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...

. As well as the village of Slip End, the parish contains the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Lower Woodside, Woodside and Pepperstock. In 2021 it had a population of 1,842. The name of Slip End possibly has a connection with

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 clay pit, quar ...

. '' Slip'' is an old English word for

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

and ''End'' is a common part of place names in Bedfordshire and not unknown in other counties. ''End'' refers to small settlements outside larger villages. It is, therefore, possible that Slip End was named in the early 19th century because of the small number of houses built near the new brickworks in an area not previously developed with the older settlements of Woodside and Pepperstock to either side. Nearby

Markyate Markyate () is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in north-west Hertfordshire, close to the border with Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Geography The name of the village has had several former variants, including ''Markyate ...

has a ''Slype Lane'' which may or not be connected. Another plausible explanation is that 'the slip' in fact is a very deep deposit of clay, situated between the stratas of chalk which form the bedrock of Central Bedfordshire. The southerly extremity of the slip terminates at the appropriately named Slip End.

History

The school in Slip End was located towards the Pepperstock end of Front Street and Summer Street, and is now the site of a small development of flats and houses called ''Old School Walk''. It was a

board school School boards were ''ad hoc'' public bodies in England and Wales that existed between 1870 and 1902, and established and administered Elementary school (England and Wales), elementary schools. Creation The Elementary Education Act 1870 (33 & ...

established as after the Education Act 1870 providing education to all. The school catered for the whole age range in two sections – juniors and infants – and in 1947 it was extended to 15‑year‑olds. A century after its foundation, the school moved to its present site on Rossway which previously had been clay pits for local brick production. The school is now a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, and caters for ages to 11 years. The parish was created in 2001 by splitting that of Caddington and Slip End. The

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

runs adjacent to the village and was officially inaugurated from Slip End. This is celebrated by a large concrete slab on the bridge next to the village with the inscription:Image of slab
/ref> :::

Local amenities

The village hall, built circa 1901, has parking for 40 cars and an entertainment licence for 100 for dancing or up to 200 for a meeting. The Peter Edwards Hall and Playing Fields are situated at the Luton end of the village, next to the church. Facilities include tennis courts and a football pitch. There are two pubs in the village, "The Rising Sun" on Front Street and the "Frog and Rhubarb" on Church Road.

References

External links

Parish CouncilSlip End Village websiteSlip End pages
at the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service {{authority control Villages in Bedfordshire Brickworks in the United Kingdom Civil parishes in Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire District