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Stanbridge Before 1086

The earliest evidence of human activity in what is now Stanbridge is recorded in The Victoria County History for Bedfordshire - palaeolithic flakes were found at Stanbridgeford in the 19th century [National Monuments Record 346587].

A boundary charter of 966 for Linslade survives. It mentions the main east-west route through the settlement was being called Thiodweg (later called Theedway or Ede Way). It ran from the Icknield Way just south of Streatley and formed the boundary separating Eggington from Stanbridge and Leighton Buzzard from Billington. It also formed the southern boundary of Linslade. There has been speculation, from the names associated with it, that it may have been a salt way - a route for carrying that precious commodity from East Anglia west.