Westoning, Bedfordshire
Historical Description
Westoning, a parish, with a village, in Beds, 1½ mile S from Flitwick station on the M.R., and 3½ miles S by W of Ampthill. It has a post office under Ampthill; money order office, Toddington; telegraph office, Flitwick. Acreage, 1627; population, 525. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. . The manor, with Westoning Manor House, belongs to the Campion family. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; gross value, £232 with residence. The church, which was well restored in 1857 at a cost of £2000, is a building in the Early English style, consisting of chance!, nave, aisles, porch, and an embattled tower. There are Baptist 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 | Westoning St. Mary Magdalene | |
| Hundred | Manshead |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1560.
The Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service (BLARS) hold the registers for Westoning: Baptisms 1560-1977, Marriages 1562-1980, Burials 1562-1978, Banns 1823-1902, 1912-1975. 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 Magdalene (parish church)
The church of St. Mary Magdalene is in the Early English style, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, porch, and an embattled tower containing 5 bells, retuned and rehung in 1893: it was beautifully restored in the year 1857, at a cost of about £2,000: an organ has been presented by the late Major and Mrs. Coventry-Campion: a memorial east window was erected in 1895 to Major John William Coventry-Campion and his wife Ann, by John Gadsby Coventry-Campion and Percy Ann Newland, and in 1903 a window was inserted in the south aisle to the memory of John Gadsby Coventry-Campion by his widow Jessie Coventry-Campion.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Westoning was in Ampthill Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Westoning from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Westoning (St. Mary Magdalene))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Bedfordshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Westoning 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
Westoning 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.