The Parish of Stagsden in General

Stagsden village sign September 2007

Name

Stagsden is first recorded, as Stacheden in the Domesday Book of 1086. Other variant spelling through the following years include: Stachdene (1086-1494); Staggeden (1183); Stachesden (1196-1388); Stachenden (1220-1242); Staggesden (1228); Stakeden (1235-1276); Stachedon (1247); Stakesden (1276-1346); Stageden (1276-1526); Stachden (1535); and Stackedene (1553). The first occurrence of the modern spelling was in 1766. The name appears to mean "stake valley", although for many years it was thought to mean "stag valley"; the name presumably refers to a boundary marker of some kind, perhaps that between Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire as Stagsden is a border parish.

Stagsden Rose Show about 1900 [Z50/107/16]

Location

Stagsden lies on the western border of Bedfordshire with Buckinghamshire adjoining the parish of Astwood. It is surrounded on its other sides by: Cranfield (south-west); Kempston Rural |(south-east); Bromham| (north-east) and Turvey (north-west). The parish contains about 3,420 acres (1300 hectares) and is, at its highest point, 270 feet above sea level, dropping to a lowest point of 125 feet. The soil is clay with blue clay and chalkstone subsoil, with a former limestone quarry in the east of the parish. In the past water supply| was difficult often resulting in droughts.

The village lies in the eastern part of the parish and was known as Church End; there are also the following hamlets: Bury End (north of the village); North End (north-west of the parish); West End (south of the parish) and Wick End (immediately north-east of the village). East End was transferred to Bromham in 1934.

The High Street about 1900 [Z50/107/21]

Landscape

Stagsden has an underlying geology of Oxford clay with white oolitic limestone and clay east of the village on both sides of the brook; a narrow band of cornbrash lies between the Oxford clay and oiolitic limestone from Wick End towards the north-east. Most of the surface is a drift deposit of boulder clay from the last Ice Age. The lowest point in the parish lies at Tymsyll Bridge being 118 feet above sea level; the highest point is west of Ducksworth near the Buckinghamshire border and lies at just over 300 feet.

The High Street about 1920 [X291/198/33]

Population

In 1086 forty five people are listed as attached to the various manors of Stagsden. These were the heads of household so the number needs to be multiplied by a factor of at least four to get an idea of the size of the settlement. This suggests that around 180 people lived in the parish at the time, making it significantly larger than many other Bedfordshire parishes, including a number which are much larger today.

The Hearth Tax of 1671 (transcribed in Bedfordshire Historical Records Society Volume 16 in 1934) records 52 dwellings in Stagsden for a total of 85 hearths. It has been estimated that this represented a population of about 234. The largest number - seven - were in the house of Thomas Gray. No house is noted as containing a forge. The house of Mr.Farrow and one other were empty. Five persons in the parish "receive Collection" dued to poverty.

Volume 81 published by the Bedfordshire Historical Records Society (2002) is devoted to returns made during episcopal visitations| to the county by the Bishop of Lincoln in the early 18th century, edited by former County Archivist Patricia Bell. One of the questions asked was the number of nonconformist families in the parish; the various responses were as follows:

• 1706: 73 families, approximately 400 people;
• 1709: 50 families;
• 1717: 70 families;
• 1720: "Three score and four" i.e. 64 families

Unusually, the population of Stagsden rose steadily for the first half of the 19th century then dwindled just as steadily ever since, with a brief resurgence in 1931, though the annexing of East End by Bromham three years later brought the figures down again. The following figures show the trend:

• 1801: 492;
• 1851: 727;
• 1901: 429;
• 1951: 368;
• 2001: 356