Bedfordshire 
Contents 
Nearby Places
Nearby churches
LIDLINGTON is a village and parish, with a station on the Bedford and Bletchley branch of the London and North Western railway, and is 3½ miles west from Ampthill station on the Midland railway, 8 south-south-west from Bedford and 55 from London by rail, in the Northern division of the county, hundred of Redbornestoke, petty sessional division, union and county court district of Ampthill, rural deanery of Fleete, archdeaconry of Bedford and diocese of Ely.
The chief crops are wheat, oats, barley, beans, peas and roots. The soil is sand, gravel and clay. The area is 2,543 acres; rateable value, £3,969; the population in 1891 was 600.
BOUGHTON END, about one mile south, is a portion of this parish.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
The 1851 Census Index for Lidlington can be found in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 3, Book 3 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
Church of England
The old church of St. Margaret, prettily situated on a hill, is an edifice of brick and stone, consisting of chancel and nave end a tower containing 1 bell: in the church are two ancient memorial tablets of the Platt family, a stone inscribed to Richard Jones, citizen and grocer of London, 1669, and a mutilated brass, with figures : in the churchyard is an elegant marble tomb to Mrs. William Charles Cavendish Bentinck, of Ridgmont: this church is now used for burial purposes only. The new church of Lidlington, given to the parish by the 9th Duke of Bedford, and opened in Nov. 1886, is of sandstone in the Early Decorated style, and consists of chancel, transepts and nave: there are 400 sittings. The register dates prior to the year 1554.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
Non-conformist
There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
The parish record transcripts for St Margaret are available on microfiche for the period 1554-1812 from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
A charity given by Thomas Johnson is partly for the education and clothing for six aged men and women, but a portion of the income, amounting to about £45 yearly, is devoted to various charitable purposes. Some of the inhabitants are engaged in lace making. The Duke of Bedford is lord of the manor and chief landowner.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
Find help, report problems, and contribute information.
[Last updated 16 March 2003 Martin Edwards]