Article For May and June 2010 Newsletters

For our May meeting we were pleased to invite Mr Tony Woodhouse to talk to us about the castles of South Bedfordshire. His first comment was ‘What castles of Bedfordshire?’ He gave us come interesting facts about the Motte and Bailey castles that were built in the district. These were mainly of timber construction designed to suppress the local population and lasted until the start of the twelfth century. Castles were located at Toddington (Congar Hill) and Chalgrave. The one at Tottenhoe was impressive with two baileys and a watch tower.

Later castles were built of stone in the traditional manner and there were three over the years at different sites in Luton. Bedford castle had a chequered history and was sieges and other uprisings.

Tony had an excellent set of slides and those showing aerial views of the sites were particularly informative, contributing to a very interesting evening for our members.

The last meeting of the year, at the end of June, was a visit by Mr Tony Tomkins who gave us an illustrated talk on the history of the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway.

Founded originally in 1918 as part of the sand quarry industry in the area it soon expanded and developed. At one time there were thirteen quarries in the area and as many as twenty-one different types of sand extracted.

In 1937 a brickworks was built on the site and later on dry roof tiles were made by Marley and the Redland Group. After the line was made redundant in 1947 it was taken over by the Ironhorse Railway Company to provide a narrow gauge railway for the public. New tracks were layed and in 1968 the new steam locomotives were introduced. A passenger timetable started and rolling stock was rebuilt, facilities improved and continue to be so.

Tony’s excellent talk illustrated the dedication of the Railway society’s volunteers over the years and its ultimate success.

Meeting are held at 8pm on the last Tuesday of the month in the Village Hall. All visitors are very welcome.

Next Meetings: Sept 28^th ‘The Idle Women’ Volunteers on the canals in WW2.

Oct 26^th ‘King Zog of Albania’s Chiltern Exile’

Nov 30^th ‘The Prison at Norman Cross’ A Time Team investigation.