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CARDINGTON, a parish in the hundred of WIXAMTREE, county of BEDFORD, 3 miles (E. S. E.) from Bedford, containing, with the chapelry of East Cotts, 1194 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £7. 17., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, contains several ancient monuments, also a tablet in memory of the great philanthropist, John Howard, who lived some years at this place, and served the office of sheriff for the county in 1773; and a splendid modern monument by Bacon, the last of his works, erected in 1799 to the memory of Samuel Whitbread, Esq., whose family first settled here in 1650, at a house called the Barns. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists, and at Cotton End is one for Particular Baptists. The navigable river Ouse runs along the northern side of the parish.
[A Topographical Dictionary of England - Samuel Lewis - 1831]
The 1851 Census Index for Cardington can be found in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 2, Book 2 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
Church of England
The church of St. Mary, with the exception of the chancel, is now (1898) being rebuilt in the Perpendicular style, from designs by Mr. Highton, architect, of Bedford, and will eventually consist of chancel with aisles, nave with clerestory, aisles and a western tower to contain 8 bells: in the north aisle of the chancel is a mural tablet to John Howard, the philanthropist, d. 20th Jan, 1790; there are also several marble monuments by Weekes Bacon to the Whitbread family: under the arcades of the chancel are two canopied altar tombs with brasses, one to the family of Sir W. Gascoigne, comptroller of the household to Cardinal Wolsey, the other to Sir Jarrate Harvye: the stained east window was erected to the memory of W. H. Whitbread esq. : in the south wall of the chancel is a piscine. The register dates from the year 1574.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
Non-conformist
The Wesleyan chapel here was erected in 1823.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
The parish record transcripts for St. Mary are available on microfiche for the period 1574-1812 from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
Genweb Bedfordshire contains a descriptive page about Cardington.
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[Last updated 5 May 2002 Martin Edwards]