Bedfordshire 
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SHEFFORD is a market town and township in Campton parish, with a station on the Bedford and Hitchin branch of the Midland railway, and is 3 miles west from Arlesey and Sheffield Road station on the Great Northern railwav, 6½ north-by-west from Hitchin, 6 south-west from Biggleswade, 9 south-east from Bedford and 38½ from London, in the Northern division of the county, hundred of Clifton, petty sessional division, union and county court district of Biggleswade, and rural deanery of Shefford, archdeaconry of Bedford and diocese of Ely. The river Ivel, an affluent of the Ouse, runs through the town, and affords water communication with Lynn. The town is at the junction of the roads from Baldock and Hitchin to Bedford, and is remarkably clean and healthy, having its streets very wide and well paved and lighted, for which purpose property in houses and land was left in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by Robert Lucas, gent. who by his will enfeoffed several of the principal inhabitants to carry his intention into effect: the yearly income of this trust is now £200.
Potatoes, onions and other vegetables are largely grown here. The area is 144 acres; rateable value, £2,077 ; the population in 1891 was 990.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
The 1851 Census Index for Shefford can be found in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 3, Book 5 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
Church of England
The church of St. Michael, a chapel of ease to Campton, is a plain edifice of stone, with an ancient Perpendicular western tower, containing one bell: the tower and north aisle date from the 14th century: the church was enlarged, restored and reseated in 1850, and will seat 525 persons. There is no independent register except for marriages, for which the church was licensed in 1873 : the earlier register is included in that of Campton, which dates from the year 1568.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
Roman Catholic
St. Francis' Home is a Catholic orphanage for boys, established by the late Very Rev. Canon Collis in 1869, and will hold 80 boys : attached is a playground, and a meadow for cricket and football: the seminary of St. Thomas Aquinas, forming a part of the establishment here, is for the training of priests to serve in the Catholic diocese of Northampton: the church, dedicated to St. Francis, and opened July 8, 1884, is in the Perpendicular style and comprises a nave, with organ gallery, porches, baptistery, and a sanctuary containing a superb high altar : two of the windows are memorials: the altar was presented by the late Mrs. Cane Dunn, of Maulden, Beds: the reredos, 30 feet high, is of stone, marble and alabaster: the church was erected at the sole cost of Mrs. Lyne-Stephens, of Lynford Hall, Thetford, Norfolk. The infants' school, built by the Misses. Williamson, of Kempston, is now used as a Sunday school and for mission services.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
Non-conformist
The Baptist chapel, erected in 1825, will seat 350 persons, and has a manse and burial ground attached : the Wesleyan chapel, erected in 1835, affords sittings for 300 persons ; the Salvation Army also have barracks here.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
Church of England
The parish record transcripts for Campton, All Saints, are available on microfiche for the period 1568-1812 from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
The market is held on Friday, and a fair is held on October 11th. Gresham's charity, founded in 1855, and of the value of £28 yearly, is for distribution in money to six poor widows. There is a Congerational and Liberal Club with reading room attached. The H Company of the 3rd Volunteer Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, numbering about 80 members, has its headquarters here, and there is a fire brigade. In a field adjoining the town a great number of beautiful Roman relics have been found, from which a fine collection was formed by the late Mr. T. Inskip, a resident here, and purchased for the Fitzwilliarn Museum, Cambridge. A Roman encampment, about a mile north, at Stanford Bury, has also furnished some of the finest specimens of Roman glass extant. The poet Bloomfield lived for some years in this town and here died, Aug. 19, 1823 ; he was buried at Campton. Robert William Powell esq. of Shefford Hardwicke, is lord of the manor.
[Extracts from Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
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[Last updated 16 March 2003 Martin Edwards]