Markyate, Bedfordshire

Historical Description

Markyate or Markyate Street, a village and an ecclesiastical parish on the Roman road about 4 miles SE from Dunstable. The parish is partly in Bedfordshire and partly in Herts, and was formed out of the parishes of Studham, Caddington, and Flamstead in 1877. There is a post, money order, and telegraph office, of the name of Markyate Street, under Dunstable. Population, 1302. A good deal of straw plait is manufactured. A Benedictine nunnery was founded in 1145 by Geoffrey, abbot of St Albans, was given at the dissolution to G. Ferrers, and has bequeathed to its site the name of Markyate Cell. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £320 with residence. The church is a small and plain building, situated in the Cell Park. A chancel was added to the church in 1892. There are Baptist, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels; also an endowed school.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Bedfordshire is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Markyate 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

Parochial History

MARKYATE STREET (now called Markyate), formerly in the counties of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, under the provisions of section 36 of the "Local Government Act, 1904" (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), became a civil parish, wholly in the administrative county of Hertford.

Visitations Heraldic

A full transcript of the Visitations of Bedfordshire 1566, 1582, and 1634 is available online.