Hockliffe

Hockliffe
Hockliffe
	St Nicholas parish church
	Hockliffe Location within Bedfordshire
Population	1,068 (parish)
OS grid reference	SP972267
Unitary authority	Central Bedfordshire ;
Ceremonial county	Bedfordshire ;
Region	East ;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LEIGHTON BUZZARD
Postcode district	LU7
Dialling code	01525
Police	Bedfordshire
Fire	Bedfordshire and Luton
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	South West Bedfordshire ;
	List of places UK England Bedfordshire 51°55′52″N0°35′11″W / 51.9311°N 0.5865°W

Last updated December 10, 2023

Hockliffe is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire on the crossroads of the A5 road which lies upon the course of the Roman road known as Watling Street and the A4012 and B5704 roads.

Hockliffe is in Heath and Reach ward which sends a councillor to Central Bedfordshire Council. The ward includes the villages of Heath and Reach, Hockliffe, Eggington, Stanbridge, Tilsworth, Tebworth and Wingrave. The ward was created in 2011 and has since been represented by Councillor Mark Versallion.^[2]

Clipstone Brook

There was a term applied from the 18th century which was "as straight as Hockley Brook" because of the meandering bends of the said brook. The correct name of the brook is the Clipstone Brook. The first field (though in the parish of Chalgrave) is still known by locals as the Old Ride, due to the original crossing of the brook of the original Woburn Road the later road being constructed in the 19th century through to the second Battlesden road turning near to the village of Milton Bryan. The new Woburn Road is about a 100 yards to the west from the said crossing and is now used by farm vehicles over a newer bridge. The second field was known as Horseshoe Corner as the brook was shaped like a horseshoe before it was straightened out by a farmer after the Second World War.

Recently there have been regular sightings of the invasive signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus, in the brook. It was noted in the local newspaper, The Leighton Buzzard Observer, that one was found inside a toy lobster during a clear out of a section of the brook near Leighton Buzzard in 2009.

Hockliffe Radio Station

During the Second World War a Czechoslovak military intelligence wireless transmission station was situated just outside Hockliffe.^[3]^[4] The station was constructed by the Special Operations Executive in 1942 exclusively for Czech intelligence services. The station was used to contact Czech embassies in such countries as Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. Eleven men operated the station until June 1945, when they were able to return to their country.^[5]

Notable people

During the 18th century Dr. William Dodd became rector of Hockliffe; he was later convicted of forgery and hanged at Tyburn.^[6]

Hockliffe is the birthplace of Arthur Henry Neumann (1850–1907), a British explorer, hunter, soldier and travel writer, famous for his exploits in Equatorial East Africa at the end of the 19th century. In 1898, he published Elephant Hunting In East Equatorial Africa that contained descriptions of his childhood in Hockliffe.^[7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woburn Sands</span> Human settlement in England

Woburn Sands is a town that straddles the border between Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire in England, and also is part of the Milton Keynes urban area. The larger part of the town is in Woburn Sands civil parish, which is in the City of Milton Keynes, Smaller parts of the town are in the neighbouring parishes of Aspley Guise and Aspley Heath. The meandering boundary between Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire means the Lower and Middle Schools that serve all of the town are both in Aspley Guise CP. Bedfordshire Police and Thames Valley Police both deal with law enforcement issues in the town. At the 2011 Census, the population of the civil parish (only) was 2,916, that of the built-up area was 5,959. Woburn Sands, Aspley Guise and Aspley Heath each has its own centre but together the three settlements are a contiguous built-up area.

South Bedfordshire was, from 1974 to 2009, a non-metropolitan district of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. Its main towns were Dunstable, Houghton Regis and Leighton Buzzard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South West Bedfordshire (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1983 onwards

South West Bedfordshire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. As with all constituencies of the UK Parliament, it elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Chalgrave is a civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. The hamlets of Tebworth and Wingfield are in the west of the parish, with the church and manor in the east. Nearby places are Toddington, Chalton, Houghton Regis, and Hockliffe. Before 1929, the parish also included part of the village of Hockliffe.

Egginton – or Eggington as it is now known – is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England, about three miles east of Leighton Buzzard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heath and Reach</span> Human settlement in England

Heath and Reach is a village and civil parish near the Chiltern Hills in Bedfordshire, England. It is 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Leighton Buzzard and 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Woburn and adjoins the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. Nearby places are Leighton-Linslade, Great Brickhill and the Duke of Bedford's Woburn Abbey, Woburn Safari Park and Woburn Golf Club.

Tebworth is a hamlet located in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England.

Wingfield is a hamlet located in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England.

Stanbridge is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire which lies 3 miles (5 km) east of Leighton Buzzard. It also borders the Bedfordshire villages of Hockliffe, Eggington, Tilsworth, Totternhoe and Billington.

Tilsworth is a small village and civil parish in Bedfordshire. It lies to the north west of Dunstable, and the Roman Watling Street (A5) forms the north east boundary of the parish of 1,200 acres (4.8 km²). The village lies on the gault clay, where springs well up just south of a gentle gravelly ridge. A large proportion of the area is still farmland.

Central Bedfordshire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It was created in 2009.

Stanbridgeford railway station on the London and North Western Railway's branch line to Dunstable served the Bedfordshire villages of Stanbridge, Totternhoe, Eaton Bray and Tilsworth from 1849 to 1964. Once popular with visitors to the nearby Totternhoe Knolls and ramblers, the station closed against a background of falling passenger numbers and declining freight returns. The station building has survived into private ownership, but a section of the alignment to the east and west of the site has been taken into the A505 Leighton Southern Bypass. National Cycle Network route 6 runs to the east over the bypass as far as the outskirts of Dunstable.

Milton Bryan is a village and civil parish located in Central Bedfordshire. It lies just off the A4012 road, near to its junction with the A5 at Hockliffe. The parish includes the ancient hamlets of Potsgrove & Battlesden. The village is best known for being the birthplace of Joseph Paxton, the designer of the Crystal Palace, who was born in Milton Bryan as the seventh son of a farming family along with its role in the Second World War.

Clipstone is a small hamlet in Bedfordshire, England. It lies within the parish of Eggington that borders with Leighton Buzzard, Heath and Reach and Hockliffe. The hamlet may be small but it gives its name to the largest tributary to the River Ouzel, the Clipstone Brook.

References

↑ ONS, Census 2021 Parish Profiles
↑ "Local News in Luton, Dunstable and Bedfordshire | Mark and Ian go on parade with the Navy". Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
↑ Neil Rees (compiler), The Secret History of The Czech Connection – The Czechoslovak Government in Exile in London and Buckinghamshire, England, 2005, ISBN 0-9550883-0-5.
↑ Jean Yates and Sue King (compilers), Dunstable and District at War from Eyewitness Accounts, Book Castle, 2006, ISBN 1-903747-79-1, pages 276–283.
↑ "Hockliffe Radio Station". Czechs in Exile. Czechoslovak Government in Exile Research Society. 24 March 2009. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
↑ The Chronicles of Newgate , Crimes and Criminals part 1, ed. Arthur George Frederick Griffiths
↑ A H Neumann, Elephant Hunting In East Equatorial Africa, London, Rowland Ward, 1897

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[1] ONS, Census 2021 Parish Profiles

[2] "Local News in Luton, Dunstable and Bedfordshire | Mark and Ian go on parade with the Navy". Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2012.

[3] Neil Rees (compiler), The Secret History of The Czech Connection – The Czechoslovak Government in Exile in London and Buckinghamshire, England, 2005, ISBN 0-9550883-0-5.

[4] Jean Yates and Sue King (compilers), Dunstable and District at War from Eyewitness Accounts, Book Castle, 2006, ISBN 1-903747-79-1, pages 276–283.

[5] "Hockliffe Radio Station". Czechs in Exile. Czechoslovak Government in Exile Research Society. 24 March 2009. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2009.

[6] The Chronicles of Newgate , Crimes and Criminals part 1, ed. Arthur George Frederick Griffiths

[ReferenceB-7] A H Neumann, Elephant Hunting In East Equatorial Africa, London, Rowland Ward, 1897

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