Kempston

History

The name Kempston derives from the Primitive Welsh word camm meaning 'crook' or 'crooked' and the Old English tūn meaning 'settlement'. This refers to the town's location on a crook-like bend on the River Great Ouse. Until the 19th century Kempston was a mainly rural parish. It was one of the largest in Bedfordshire with an area of 5,025 acres (20 km2) at the time of enclosure in 1804, and was in Redbournestoke Hundred. Historically there was no central village, but instead settlement was divided between a number of hamlets called "Ends", including Up End, Bell End, Wood End and Box End. Kempston's parish church, All Saints, was in Church End, which was not the largest end but was fairly central to the parish. In the 19th century East End, Bell End and Up End began to coalesce into a larger settlement. In 1870 developers began to attempt to develop land on the road from Kempston to Bedford under the name "Kempston New Town". Construction was slow at first, but the new district soon began to expand steadily and Kempston acquired a more urban feel. A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of Kempston Barracks in 1876. On 1 April 1896 the parish was divided into "Kempston" (in Kempston Urban District) and of Kempston Rural . The Urban District was based on East End, Up End and Kempston New Town all of which are in the north eastern part of the parish close to Bedford, and had 86.8% of the total population at the 1901 census. Kempston Rural was three times larger, but remained sparsely populated. Church End, with Kempston's original parish church, was included in the Kempston Rural parish and remains a small hamlet today. A gravel pit was opened at Hill Grounds in the 1860s and the area around Bunyan Road was known as 'Gravel…