Introduction

Church Cottages and the School from the Church tower about 1920 [Z50/67/28a]

Before Domesday

Finds of stone tools, mostly in the 19th century, have revealed that Kempston, not surprisingly given its location near the River Great Ouse, was inhabited in prehistory as far back in time as the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age (before 10,000BC). Iron Age pottery has been found at Box End and Romano-British settlements have identified at Moor End and between Green End and West End. It is possible that a Roman villa stood at Church End as a quantity of pottery and coins have been found there since the 19th century and, most notably, in 1851 a small Roman bronze statue of a man in a state of entreaty was found in the Vicarage| garden.

Church End Cottages about 1920 [Z50/67/39]

Name

Kempston was an ancient parish in the Redbornstoke Hundred. In 1896 the civil parish was divided into two Kempston Urban District, now simply called Kempston, and the civil parish of Kempston Rural. The name was first recorded in 1060 as Kemestan and has had a bewildering number of variations over the years including: Coembestun (1350); Cæmbestune (1077); Camestone (1086-1200); Canbestuna (1124-1128); Kembeston (1176-1325); Kemeston (1189-1332); Kamistuna (1195); Camestun (1195); Chemiston (1199); Cemeston (1199); Cambesdon and Kimbeston (1201); Cambeston (1236); Kemston (1236-1349); Kembestun (1237-1253); Kemestun (1241); Kemyston (1242); Kempeston (1276-1306); Kemmeston (1276); Camston (1328); and Cameston (1332). The modern form of the name first appears in 1247; the name appears to mean homestead on the bend (the great bend taken by the River Great Ouse).

 
Henman's Hygienic Laundry in Wood End about 1900 [Z50/67/45]

Parish

The ancient parish of Kempston was large and Kempston Rural is still a sizable civil parish|, despite losing the hamlet of Kempston Hardwick| in 1937 to the newly formed civil parish of Stewartby. For a discussion of Kempston at the time of the Domesday Book of 1086 and its later manors please see the Introduction to Kempston|. The modern boundaries of Kempston Rural are: Elstow to south-east; Stewartby to south-west; Wootton| to the south, Cranfield in a narrow spur of Kempston Rural in the most south-westerly part of the parish; Stagsden to the north-west, Bromham to the north; Biddenham to north-east and Kempston to the east.

The civil parish encompasses the hamlets of: Box End (in the north of the parish around the West End Road-Box End Road crossroads); Church End (around the church on the west bank of the River Great Ouse in the east of the parish); Gibraltar (Ibbett Close, The Chase, Home Road, Wootton Road and Wood End Lane in the south-east of the parish); Green End (between Gibraltar and Church End); Moor End (between Box End and Bromham), West End (in the west of the parish, on the northern end of the thin spur running into Cranfield parish); and Wood End (in the south of the parish on Wood End Road and the southern part of Tithe Road). All these ends, with the exception of Gibraltar, are medieval in date and there were originally more: Astley Wood End (presumably near Astey Wood, now in the parish of Stagsden); Bridge End (that area south of Bromham Bridge now largely in the parish of Bromham); Mill End (around the mill in what is now the neighbouring urban parish of Kempston) and Kempston Bourne (presumably bordering Wootton Bourne End). Later ends included Littleworth End, the location of one of the parish workhouses and on Tithe Road, west of Tithe Farm between Wood End and West End. Crow End was first recorded on a map of 1826 and was centred on Old Farm and its cottages and Gravel End was a 19th century creation to describe the area around Bunyan Road in the urban parish of Kempston. Gibraltar is named after Gibraltar Cottage, built at a crossroads in Ridgeway Field in the 18th century but was demolished some time between 1804 and 1848; the settlement itself is a creation of the 20th century.

Population

The census population figures for Kempston Rural, since it was created in 1896 show that it has grown quite steadily:

1901: 719;
1911: 648;
1921: 656;
1931: 730;
1951: 1,171;
1961: 1,289;
1971: 1,306;
1981: 1,276;
1991: 1,163;
2001: 1,272.