Goldington Vicarages
The Bedfordshire Historic Environment Record [HER] contains information on the county’s historic buildings and landscapes and summaries of each entry can now be found online as part of the Heritage Gateway website. The entry for Goldington Vicarage [HER 14504] gives the site as today’s 2 Cricket Lane.
The earliest reference to the parsonage to survive dates from 1637 in a 'Goldington Vicarial Inventory' [BorBL2/4/3] which states:
"...the Vicar[i]dge howse consisteth of three bayes, very sufficiente and all lofted , One barne consistinge of two bayes w[i]th a stable & other outhouses all in sufficiente repaire, and a p[lo]te or stripe of grownd beside belonginge, situate... betweene the grownd of Robert Haselden Esq[uire] south and... grownd now in the occupac[i]on of Hene[r]y Cowple Blacksmyth north abbutt on the comon greene east and the open feild west..."
Furthermore in 1708 a terrier was compiled of land and buildings owned by the Archdeaconry of Bedford [ABE II Volume 1 page 31 and BorBL2/4/5b]. This states:
"Goldington. An account of the Rights of the Vicarage and Church of Goldington in the archdeaconry of Bedford made in the year 1708-
Homestall The Vicarage house is built with Timber and covered with Tiles and contains four Bays wherein are a parlour floored with Boards and cieled, A hall paved with Brick and cieled, a Kitchen paved with Brick and cieled, a Pantry and Cellar each paved with Brick and cieled, Also four Rooms above stairs floored with Board and cieled, Two Barns containing two Bays each built with Timber and cover'd with Thatch, A Stable and Brewhouse containing two Bays each built with Timber and covered with Thatch, A Pightle of Sweard and Orchard. The whole Homestall containing by Estimation One acre and is founded on the North with a house Garden and Orchard in the Tenure of William Goody On the South with the Orchard and Garden of John Wiffin on the West with Church Field On the East with the Common Green, and is fenced with Pales on the East and West; By a Hedge on the North; and on the South by a Hedge belonging to John Whiffin."
The Northampton Mercury of 7th March 1785 noted that the vicarage was to be let, it ws described as: “consisting of two Parlours in Front, with a Kitchen, Dairy, good Cellar, and five Bed-Chambers; together with a Barn, Stable and other convenient Out Houses; also an handsome Garden & well-planted Orchard adjoining to the Premises, with the Church-Yard”.
“The Situation is very eligible, fronting a beautiful Green, a navigable River running at a small Distance, and within one Mile of the Town of Bedford”. Prospective renters were to apply to Thomas Hornbuckle, vicar from 1766 to 1794, who looks as if he was non-resident.
The Bedfordshire Mercury of 14th November 1863 had an notice requesting tenders to James Horsford, architect, for: “taking down and rebuilding part of the vicarage house at Goldington”. The Ely Diocesan archive at Cambridge University Library has parsonage papers which include a “mostly new” vicarage in 1864 [EDR/G3/40 MGA/BED/36]. They also have papers for alterations and additions to the vicarage in 1882 [EDR/G3/40 MGA/BED/72].
The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value. The valuer visiting the Vicarage [DV1/C228/84] ntes that it occupied 1.178 acres and comprised: a small entrance hall, a study measuring 19 feet 6 inches by 14 feet 6 inches, a pantry, a kitchen measuring 13 feet by 16 feet, a scullery, a larder, a dining room measuring 14 feet 9 inches, by 18 feet and a nursery. Upstairs was a WC, a drawing room measuring 15 feet by 18 feet, two single bedrooms, a double bedroom over the study and measuring 19 feet 6 inches by 14 feet 6 inches, a maids’ room “for two”, a bathroom (“was bedroom”) and a boot room. Outside was a coal place or small trap house, another coal place, a lumber place, a wood barn and an earth closet. There was a tennis court and a large kitchen garden but “no grounds”. The vicarage had electric light laid on, water from Biggleswade and cesspool drainage.
This vicarage was demolished when the modern houses in Cricket Lane were being built after World War Two. The present vicarage is in Church Lane.