History

History of the Chalgrave Memorial Hall

Coming soon!

History of Chalgrave Parish

There are now only 199 dwellings and 396 people on the electoral roll and it is known that Chalgrave was always small community. The modern parish occupies an area of some 927 hectares in southern Bedfordshire. The historic parish was slightly larger at 983 hectares: part of Hockliffe village which had grown up in Chalgrave parish on the north-east side of the A5 was transferred to Hockliffe parish in 1929 and additional land was transferred in 1985.

The Theedway, an ancient Salt way with links to the Ridgeway and Icknield way, runs through the parish crossing the road between Tebworth and Wingfield. The Parish boundary was fixed in the charter of 926 and the Roman Watling street 43 AD. forms part of the south west boundary.

There was a Roman settlement on the chalk ridge on the south east corner and a bronze Intaglio ring used as a seal was found circa 1860 near Chalgrave Church. The Chalgrave name, however, originally did not refer to a specific settlement or place but to an area. It came to be used as the name for the major landholding or estate locally and for the ecclesiastical parish when it was established, but no village ever took the name. The settlement of what is now known as Chalgrave was East Coten (‘east cottages’) in 926. It is quite likely that East Coten only became commonly known as Chalgrave after its status was improved when the church and early manor site were established there.