Nether and Upper Dean, Bedfordshire
Historical Description
Dean, Nether and Upper, a village and a parish in Bedfordshire, near the Three-shire stone, 3½ miles W from Kimbolton station on the M.R. Post town, Kimbolton under St Neot's; money order and telegraph office, Kimbolton. Acreage, 2472; population, 406. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; net yearly value, £230 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. The church is a building of mixed styles, chiefly Decorated and Perpendicular. There are also Congregational and Wesleyan chapels.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Bedfordshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Nether Dean All Saints | |
Hundred | Stodden |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1566.
Churches
Church of England
All Hallows, Upper Dean
The church of All Hallows, situated in Upper Dean, is a building of mixed styles, chiefly Decorated and Perpendicular, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles with Eastern chapels, south porch and a Decorated western tower, with short octagonal spire, relieved by two tiers of small dormers, containing 4 bells and a clock: the chancel, aisle's, clerestory and roof are Perpendicular, the chancel arch is Early English, and the nave arches Decorated; the roof, a fine open one, has very richly carved bosses and figures of angels, and the wall plates are ornamented with foliage and shields: in the north aisle is a cinquefoiled sepulchral recess and a hagioscope, and in the south porch a holy water stoup: in the chapel at the east end of the south aisle is a piscina, and an altar-tomb with brass to Sir Thomas Parker, prebendary of the collegiate church of St. Mary in Shrewsbury, and rector of Dean, who died in 1501: there is also a monument to Francis Dillingham, rector here, and one of the translators of the Bible, dated 1598, and a record of Joseph Neale's educational endowment, left in 1702: there are 250 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Dean was in St. Neots Registration District from 1837 to 1935 and Bedford Registration District from 1935 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Nether and Upper Dean from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Dean, Nether (All Saints))
- Kelly's Directory of Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire, 1914
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Bedfordshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Nether and Upper Dean are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Bedfordshire papers online:
- Bedfordshire Times and Independent
- Biggleswade Chronicle
- Luton Times and Advertiser
- Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle
Visitations Heraldic
A full transcript of the Visitations of Bedfordshire 1566, 1582, and 1634 is available online.