Bedfordshire 
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DEAN is a village and parish, divided into Nether and Upper Dean, on the borders of Northamptonshire and Hunts, 4 miles west from Kimbolton station on the Kettering and Huntingdon section of the Midland railway, 14 north from Bedford and 6 south-east from Higham Ferrers, in the Northern division of the county, Sharnbrook petty sessional division, hundred of Stodden, union of St. Neots, county court district of Thrapston, rural deanery of Risely, archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Ely.
In this parish is the three-shire stone which stands close to the junction of the counties of Beds, Hunts and Northamptonshire. Lord St. John is lord of the manor. John William Rawson-Ackroyd esq. of the Grange, and Fitzgerald Verity Dalton esq. J.P. are the principal landowners. The soil is clay; subsoil, principally clay. The chief crops are wheat, oats, beans and peas, The area is 2,472 acres; rateable value, £2,184; the population in 1891 was 406.
[Extracts from Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
The 1851 Census Index for Dean can be found in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 2, Book 1 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
The full 1891 Census of Dean Parish is available as fiche set C14 from the Huntingdonshire FHS.
Church of England
The church of All Saints, situated in Upper Dean, is a building of mixed styles, chiefly Decorated and Perpendicular, and consists of chancel, clerestoriod nave of four bays, aisles, south porch and a Decorated western tower, with short octagonal spire relieved bv two tiers of small dormers, containing 4 bells and a clock : the chancel, aisles, clerestory and roof are Perpendicular, the chancel arch is Early English, the nave arches Decorated; the roof, a fine open one, has very richly carved bosses and figures of angels, and the wall plates are ornamented with foliage and shields: in the north aisle is a cinquefoiled sepulchral recess and a hagioscope; and in the south porch a holy water stoup : in the south aisle is a piscina, and an altar-tomb with brass to Sir Thomas Parker, prebendary of the collegiate church of St. Mary in Shrewsbury, and rector of Dean, who died in 1501: there is also a monument to Francis Dillingham, rector here, and one of the translators of the Bible, dated 1593; and a record of Joseph Neales educational endowment, left in 1702: there are 250 sittings. The register dates from the year 1566.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
Non-conformist
There is a Wesleyan chapel at Nether Dean, erected in 1846, and a Congregational chapel at Upper Dean, built at the sole cost of William Ackroyd esq. in 1863.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
The parish record transcripts for All Saints are available on microfiche for the period 1566-1812 from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
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[Last updated 8 January 2005 Martin Edwards]