Keysoe, Bedfordshire
Historical Description
Keysoe, a village and a parish in Bedfordshire. The village stands 4 miles SSW of Kimbolton station on the M.R., and 7½ W by N of St Neots, was anciently called Caissot, is a very scattered place connected at the ends with Keysoe Row and Brook End, and has a post office under St Neots; money order and telegraph office, Riseley. Acreage, 3699; population, 662. A broken piece of ground in the NE is thought to have been the site of a Romano-British town. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; gross value, £285. Patron, Trinity College, Cambridge. The church is a building of stone chiefly in the Perpendicular and Decorated styles, consists of nave, N aisle, and chancel, with W tower and spire, and contains an Early English font and a piscina. There are Baptist chapels at Keysoe Row, Brook End, and Mill Hill.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Bedfordshire | |
| Diocese | Ely | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Keysoe St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Stodden |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1715.
The Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service (BLARS) hold the registers for Keysoe: Baptisms 1735-1983, Marriages 1735-1993, Burials 1735-1983, Banns 1823-1952. Transcripts in either book or microfiche form for registers prior to 1813 can be purchased from the BLARS (see website for details).
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is a building of stone of mixed styles, chiefly Decorated and Perpendicular, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave with north aisle, extending to length of chancel, south porch and a massive western tower with crocketed pinnacles and an octagonal spire, with three tiers of dormers, and containing a clock and 5 bells, the font is Early English, probably dating from 1200, and has an inscription, inmodern French, running round the base: there is also an ancient slab, inscribed in Lombardic capitals, and a coped slab carved with crosses recerclée and roses: there is a piscina on the south side of the chancel and east end of the north aisle; the east window of the chancel was filled with stained glass in 1885, representing the Crucifixion, in memory of the Rev. William Airy M.A. vicar Irom 1836: the edifice was restored in 1885, and has now 270 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Keysoe was in Bedford Registration District from 1837 to 1934
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Keysoe from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Keysoe (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Bedfordshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Keysoe 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
Poor Law
Keysoe was in Bedford Poor Law Union. For further detailed history of the Bedford Union see Peter Higginbotham's excellent resource: Bedford Poor Law Union and Workhouse.
Visitations Heraldic
A full transcript of the Visitations of Bedfordshire 1566, 1582, and 1634 is available online.