Sandy, Bedfordshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1898.

SANDY:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1898.

"SANDY, a parish, and a large and populous village and railway station, on the road from Potton to Bedford, and near the Great North road, 3 miles west from the former, 8½ east from the latter, 3 north from Biggleswade, 8 south from St. Neots and 44 from London, in the Northern division of the county, partly in the hundred of Biggleswade and Partly in that of Wixamtree, petty sessional division, union and county court district of Biggleswade, rural deanery of Biggleswade, archdeaconry of Bedford and diocese of Ely. The Great Northern Company has a station here on its main line, which is intersected at this point by the Cambridge and Bedford branch of the London and North Western, affording railway communication with London, the South of England, and Oxford and the Midland Counties, thus adding greatly to the importance of this place, and constituting it a centre of railways which give great facility for sending the staple products of the neighbourhood (principally potatoes, beans, onions and cucumbers) to the London markets and the manufacturing districts. The river Ivel flows through this parish.

The land is a rich and fertile soil, chiefly cultivated as market garden ground. The area is 4,254 acres of land and 22 of water; rateable value, £19,948; the population in 1891 was 2,755.

Under the provisions of the "Divided Parishes Act, 1882," a detached part of Northill parish was added to Sandy, and a part of latter parish transferred to the fomer."

"BEESTON, is a hamlet in the parish of Sandy, about 1¼ miles south. The Wesleyan chapel was erected in 1865, and will hold 300 people : there is also a recreation room used for various meetings."

"GIRTFORD, is a hamlet in the parish of Sandy, about half a mile west from the village, on the road from Biggleswade to St. Neots. The Church Mission room here, erected in 1886 at a cost of £800, consists of apsidal chancel, and a central turret containing one bell, and affords 200 sittings. Here is a Primitive Methodist chapel, built in 1868, and seating 120 persons."

"SEDDINGTON, is a hamlet in the parish of Sandy, 2 miles south on the Great North road."

"STRATFORD, is a hamlet in the parish of Sandy, about 1 mile south."