Introduction

Geology

Caddington lies on the north-east edge of the Chiltern Hills. The highest ground lies to the north with steep drops to north and north-west and a more gradual drop south-east. The landscape, of chalk, contains deep valleys formed during the last Ice Age. The highest point is more than 675 feet above sea level on Blows Downs in the north-west of the parish. The lowest point is about 450 feet in the valley of the River Ver.

Early History

The name Caddington mean's Cada's Hill. It is first recorded about 1053 as Cadandun with later variations including Cadendone, Kadendon and Carrington, the latter illustrating the local

pronunciation in the 16th century. The parish has had a complex history, partly owing to its large size, originally around 4,500 acres. As may be guessed, there has been human settlement at Caddington long before the notion of a parish existed. Bedfordshire County Council Historic Environment Information Officer Stephen Coleman published a volume on Caddington and Kensworth in 1985 [CRT130CAD] in which he lists archaeological discoveries in the parish. He noted that the great Dunstable Victorian amateur archaeologist Worthington George Smith discovered flint working floors dating to the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age north of Dunstable Road in the vicinity of the modern garden centre, these are likely to have been used around 100,000BC or earlier. The palaeolithic ended around 9700BC and other flint implements from this era were found by Worthington G.Smith at Gatehouse Field on the Dunstable Road (again by Worthington G.Smith), south east of Buncer's Wood adjoining Millfield Lane, adjoining Folly Lane, north of Hawthorn Crescent, south of Caddington Green, near Tipplehill Farm and north of Highlands Farm. The Old Stone Age was followed by the Middle Stone Age or mesolithic (c.10,000 to 4,00BC), an era of hunter gatherer societies when the area of what is now Caddington would have been covered in forests after the retreat of the glaciers north at the end of the last Ice Age. Surface finds of mesolithic flint tools have been made in the north of the parish west of Zouches Farm and on Blows Downs.

Worthington G.Smith also found flint implements from the New Stone Age of Neolithic (c.4,000-2,000BC) in Caddington. This was a key era in human development as it was when people first started to settle down and farm the land, growing crops and keeping domesticated livestock. Flint implements from this era were found at the following locations: south of Caddington Green; Gatehouse Field adjoining Dunstable Road; Blows Downs. The next era of prehistory was the Bronze Age (c.2,000-900BC) and a possible barrow or burial mound from this era existed on the north side of Dunstable Road near the garden centre - it has now been ploughed out. The last era of British prehistory was the Iron Age (900BC-43AD) and on Blows Downs, adjoining a chalk quarry was an occupation site or burial ground discovered by Worthington G.Smith in 1888 which yielded pottery, a male skeleton, horse bones and a block of iron pyrites.  

In 43AD the Emperor Claudius despatched a Roman army to conquer Britain and the most obvious Roman feature in Caddington is, of course, Watling Street - the A5, built from London to Anglesey by the Romans as they advanced north-west. Not surprisingly Caddington has yielded a number of Roman finds, for example, Worthington G.Smith found Roman occupation south of Caddington Green in 1904 which included coins, pottery and a millstone. In the north of the parish, north-west of Zouches Farm early Roman pottery was found on the surface north of Dunstable Road near the modern garden centre, on the site of the Bronze Age barrow, Roman pottery was found. During the so-called Dark Ages (410-1066) settlement continued at Caddington as was evidenced by Saxon pottery found on the former Bronze Age barrow at Dunstable Road.  

Boundaries and Hamlets

In this context to use the phrase ancient parish| seems slightly ludicrous, but such is the term used for all English parishes which have been in existence since at least 1066. The ancient parish of Caddington was originally partly in Bedfordshire and partly in Hertfordshire (in Flitt and Dacorum Hundreds respectively). This was recognised with the creation of two separate civil parishes|, with attendant parish councils, in 1894, with one in each county. This slightly bizarre state of affairs was remedied just three years later in 1897 when the boundaries were altered and part of the Hertfordshire parish was transferred to Bedfordshire forming a single Caddington parish.

The 1897 boundary change was not straightforward, however. Parts of both old Caddingtons were taken to help create a new Hertfordshire civil parish of Markyate. This new parish also received parts of the Hertfordshire parish of Flamstead and the Bedfordshire parish of Houghton Regis as well as the whole of the former Bedfordshire civil parish of Humbershoe which was abolished. Humbershoe had been hamlet of Studham until 1866 when it became a separate Bedfordshire civil parish. At the time Studham, like Caddington, was partly in each county. In 1894 Studham was, like Caddington, made into two civil parishes, one in each county, only to be transferred wholly to Bedfordshire in 1897!

Caddington has always contained a number of hamlets: Aley Green, Chaul End, Markyate Street, Slip End and Woodside. A number of these are now separate entities and Caddington gained another, Pepperstock, originally part of the parish of Flamstead in Hertfordshire in 1965, the same year as the boundary between Caddington and Luton was made the M1 motorway. Markyate or Market Street was created a separate ecclesiastical parish (i.e. for church purposes only, not local government) in 1877 from parts of both Caddingtons, Flamstead, Houghton Regis and both Studhams. This ecclesiastical parish was in the Hertfordshire Rural Deanery of Berkhamstead and lies in the Hertfordshire parish of Markyate. Woodside was, again, created a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1892, it forms part of Luton Rural Deanery and remains within the civil parish of Caddington. The civil parish of Caddington was known officially known as Caddington & Slip End in the late 20th century as a recognition of the growing size of the latter hamlet. Slip End was created a separate civil parish, with its own Parish Council on 10 Oct 2000.

For the sake of simplicity each settlement: Caddington, Slip End, Chaul End, Aley Green, Woodside and Pepperstock will have its own section in the Community Archive Outreach Project site and this introduction will from this point be restricted to Caddington alone. 

Manors

The Manor of Caddington was allegedly given to the monks of St.Albans by King Offa of Mercia (reigned 757-796, buried in Bedford) but no subsequent record exists until the reign of Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042-1066) and it is possible that this early document was a later medieval forgery by the Abbey of St.Albans to claim the land (it is known that such practices did occur). Just before the Norman Conquest the Manor was held by Edwin of Caddington and he passed it to his son Lewin. The entry in Domesday Book (1086) states that Lewin gave the manor to the canons of St.Paul's in London who held it until 1649 when it was sold, by parliament, to Henry Proby and John Hammond, both of London. On the restoration of King Charles II in 1660 the property was returned to St.Paul's for whom it was held by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1872 until the various acts disestablishing manors in the 1920s.

A Manor of Dunrigge is mentioned in minister's accounts in 1463/4 but no further references are known. Two prebendal manors existed (i.e. manors held by a prebend, a canon having a stall in the cathedral, in this case London) called Great and Little Caddington Manors. As with Caddington, both Great and Little Caddington were taken over by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1872.

A further manor was Zouches which was, perhaps, created at the beginning of the fourteenth century, certainly it does not appear on a detailed survey of 1297 but is mentioned in 1311 when in the possession of Edmund Inge. In 1323 the manor passed by marriage to the Zouche family who held it into 1540s. The manor was located in the north of the parish as is shown by the name of Zouches Farm, on which the manor was centred. The Marshe family of Caddington, who also held the lease of Caddington Manor, purchased the manor from the Zouches who held it until 1605 when John Clerke of London bought it. On the death of Clerke's son in 1664 the manor passed through a number of families until it was purchased by the infamous William Beckford of Fonthill [Wiltshire] at the end of the 18th century. This man cuts an eccentric figure in an age of eccentrics, he inherited a fortune of over £1,000,000 but was driven from polite society by his bisexual lifestyle. He lived on the continent for many years and wrote a Gothic novel in French. His most famous monument was the extraordinary Fonthill Abbey, designed by the architect James Wyatt. It was, in effect a massive folly and he lived the life of a recluse there from 1807 until 1822 when, due to neglect it was already becoming ruinous. He lost his Jamaica sugar plantations to a legal action in 1822, sold Fonthill and moved to Bath and lived there until his death in 1844.

Population

Population figures for the Bedfordshire portion of Caddington show a great increase (330%) in size in the parish during the nineteenth century as follows:

1801: 319 1821: 379 1841: 453 1861: 592 1881: 1058

Figures for the combined parish post 1897 show a similarly startling growth (270%) during the twentieth century:

1901: 1515 1911: 1508 1931: 1785 1951: 2296 1971: 5492 1991: 5463

 In 2001, after Slip End became a separate civil parish the population was 3679 (1974 for Slip End).