Timeline of Events in Higham Gobion

1086: Higham [Gobion] is mentioned in the Domesday Book. 

11th Century: Higham Gobion Castle, an 11th century earthwork motte and bailey fortress, founded by the Gobion family. A small motte encased by a ditch, stands in the centre of a very large triangular ward which is extended on its south west angle. It was built on a marshy site and defended by substantial ramparts.

1154: There was a church at Higham Gobion by this date. The present church is essentially a Victorian rebuilding of 1879-80 at a cost of £1300 incorporating a north arcade of c.1300 and a chancel of the same date.

1665: Edmund Castell, scholar and author of Lexicon Heptaglotten, a great oriental dictionary which covered seven languages including Hebrew, Arabic and Persian. The dictionary took 17 years to write and cost £12,000 to publish. After his death 500 copies were destroyed by his niece. He was Vicar from 1665 until his death in 1685.    

1870s: Coprolite digging took place in the 1870s in the Pightle, a field north of Higham Gobion Hill. The coprolite industry was the production of fertiliser from coprolites which were thought to be the fossilised dung of prehistoric reptiles and known locally as 'dinosaur dung'. The industry had died out by the 1890s with the import of foreign phosphates for chemical manure. Wages were high and a good 'fossil digger' could earn 40s a week.

1879-80: At a cost of £1300, major restoration took place on the church with a new roof and seats and a new west tower.

1933: By The South Bedfordshire Order of 1933 part of the parish was transferred to Pulloxhill.

1943: The east end of the church was found to be unsafe, the problem caused by the dropping of bombs in a nearby field. Restoration took place after the war.

1969: Church tower restored.

1985: Manor Cottage an The Old Rectory are Grade II listed.