Husborne Crawley
| Husborne Crawley | |
|---|---|
 St. James' Church |
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 Husborne Crawley
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| Husborne Crawley shown within Bedfordshire | |
| Population | 237 (2011 Census) |
| OS grid reference | SP 95444 36238 |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | bedford |
| Postcode district | MK43 |
| Dialling code | 01908 |
| Police | Bedfordshire |
| Fire | Bedfordshire and Luton |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
| UK Parliament | |
Husborne Crawley is a small village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, located close to Junction 13 of the M1 motorway. The village touches the borders of the Woburn Abbey estate on one side, and the village of Aspley Guise on the other. The meaning of the Husborne element of the towns name is "warrior stream" and the Crawley element means "crow clearing".
In the 1870s Crawley-Husborne was described as "a parish in Woburn district, Beds; on the Bedford and Bletchley railway, ¾ mile SW of Ridgmount r. station, and 1¾ NNE of Woburn."
St. James' Church which is located on School Lane, is the parish church of St. Mary, with work on the church being dated as early as the 13th century. The church has a tower with three bays, western tower with six chiming bells and clock face, and has been subject to various changes throughout its history, with one of the most substantial changes occurring at around the 15th century.
It has a nineteenth-century manor house in its own grounds, known as Crawley Park. The Crawley Park estate is privately owned, and features some preserved and listed wooden-framed medieval cottages. The village also has The White Horse public house, which is described as "A substantial corner pub on the main road through the village, it consists of a single U-shape room wrapped around a central bar counter along with some outside picnic benches".
Other amenities in the village include Husborne Crawley Lower School which was built by The Duke of Bedford in 1867, and was set up to ensure that the poorer families who worked on the estates, could have educated children. Husborne Crawley also has a village hall, called "The Reading Room", which is used by the community for meetings, social gatherings and parties.
The parish is first mentioned in a document of 969 setting out the boundaries of Aspley Guise, by its original name of Hysseburnan. Within the Domesday Book which was commissioned by William the Conqueror (1066–1087), found that the parish of Husborne Crawley was divided into two manors. The parish was still considered two areas in the Middle Ages, one called Crawley and the other Husborne Crawley, the first was considered to be in the south part of the parish and the other to be the northern part. The parish of covers an area of 1,610½ acres, with a large portion (863 acres) of it being open grassland and also a large amount of arable land (414 acres).
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Wikipedia