Hardmead, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Hardmead, a parish in Bucks, adjacent to Beds, 5 miles NE from Newport Pagnell, and 8 from Bedford. Post town and money order and telegraph office, Newport Pagnell. Acreage, 1211; population of the civil parish, 90; of the ecclesiastical, 79. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; net yearly value, £83 with residence. The church is a small building of stone in the Early English style, dating from the 12th and 14th centuries.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Buckinghamshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Hardmead St. Mary | |
Hundred | Newport | |
Poor Law union | Newport-Pagnell |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1536.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The parish church of St. Mary, built in the 12th century, is a small edifice of stone, chiefly in the Early English style, and consists of chancel, nave of two bays with clerestory, aisles, south porch and low embattled western tower of Perpendicular date containing 3 bells, only 2 of which are now in use: the church was restored in 1861 and contains some memorials of the Catesbys, including a brass, with effigy in a farred robe, to Francys Catesby, youngest son of Antony Catesby, of Whyston esq. 1556, with effigy in civil dress and an inscription; and the recumbent effigy of another Francis Catesby, 1636: there is a scroll, framed in oak, containing the names of 6 men of the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18: there are 96 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Hardmead was in Newport Pagnell Registration District from 1837 to 1935
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Hardmead from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hardmead (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Hardmead 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 Buckinghamshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
A full transcript of the Visitation of Buckinghamshire, 1634 is online