Upper Gravenhurst, Bedfordshire
Historical Description
Gravenhurst, Upper, a village and a parish in Beds, 5 miles SW of Shefford station on the M.R. and 5¼ E by S from Ampthill. Post town, Ampthill; money order and telegraph office, Shillington. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; net value, £65. The church is good.
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 | Upper Gravenhurst St. Giles | |
| Hundred | Flitt |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1567.
The Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service (BLARS) hold the registers for Upper Gravenhurst: Baptisms 1564-1944, Marriages 1567-1982, Burials 1567-1901, Banns 1824-1878. 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. Giles (parish church)
The church of St. Giles is a small and unpretending edifice of stone, chiefly of Perpendicular date, and consisting of chancel, nave and an embattled western tower containing 5 bells: the roof of the nave exhibits good open timber work, with carved bosses and figures of angels: the chancel arch is Norman.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Upper Gravenhurst, later just Gravenhurst, was in Ampthill Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Upper Gravenhurst from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Gravenhurst, Upper (St. Giles))
- 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 Upper Gravenhurst 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
Upper Gravenhurst was in Ampthill Poor Law Union. For further detailed history of the Ampthill Union see Peter Higginbotham's excellent resource: Ampthill Poor Law Union and Workhouse.
Visitations Heraldic
A full transcript of the Visitations of Bedfordshire 1566, 1582, and 1634 is available online.