Bedfordshire 
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Nearby churches
HOLWELL is a village and parish, 2 miles south from the Henlow station on the Bedford and Hitchin branch of the Midland railway and 3½ north-west from Hitchin in the Southern division of the county, Biggleswade 3 petty sessional division, hundred of Clifton, Hitchin union, rural deanery of Shefford, archdeaconry of Bedford and diocese of Ely, situated on the borders of Hertfordshire: part of the village is, in the parish of Shillington. The Great Northern main line and a branch of the Midland railway run through the parish on the east.
The soil is stiff clay; subsoil, strong clay. The chief crops are wheat, oats, barley, beans and peas. The area is 584 acres ; rateable value, £2,693 ; the population in 1891 was 278.
CADWELL is a portion of this parish, distant 2½ miles east.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
The 1851 Census Index for Holwell can be found in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 4, Book 1 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
Church of England
The church of St. Peter is an ancient building of stone, originally Perpendicular, but much modernised, and consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and a western tower containing a clock and 2 bells : there is a small and curious brass to Robert Wodehouse, priest, 1515, a benefactor to the church: the church was restored in 1877, at a cost of £2,500, and reopened May 8th, 1879, by the Bishop of Ely. The register dates from the year 1560.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898
Church of England
The parish record transcripts for St. Peter are available on microfiche for the period 1560-1812 from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
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[Last updated 20 June 2003 Martin Edwards]