Caddington () is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Central Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It was created in 2009. Formation Central Bedfordshire was created on 1 April 2009 as part of a structural reform of local government in Bedfor ...

district of

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

, England. It is between the

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is t ...

urban area (to the north), and

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

(to the south). The western border of the parish is

Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main ...

, to the west of which is

Kensworth Kensworth is a village and civil parish located in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. The parish is located on the edge of Dunstable Downs, and includes the hamlets of California and Kensworth Lynch. The parish was origi ...

. The northern and eastern border are generally formed by the railway line and the M1. To the south-east of the parish is the parish of

Slip End Slip End is a village and civil parish in Central Bedfordshire, England. The village is located very near to Luton. As well as the village of Slip End, the parish contains the hamlets of Lower Woodside, Woodside and Pepperstock. In 2001 it had ...

, and to the south is

Markyate Markyate is a village and civil parish in north-west Hertfordshire, close to the border with Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Geography The name of the village has had several former variants, including ''Markyate Street'', ''Market Street'' and ...

, in Hertfordshire. Caddington village and the nearby

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Aley Green are in the south of the parish. The hamlet of Chaul End lies in the north of the parish, and at the border with Luton there is Caddington Park with

Skimpot Skimpot is a suburb of Luton, in the Borough of Luton, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. The area is roughly bounded by Dunstable Road to the north, Hatters Way to the south, Skimpot Road to the west, and the M1 to the east. Or ...

in its postal address. The Zouches Farm radio tower is situated in the north-west of the parish.

History

The place-name 'Caddington' is first attested in a list from circa 1000 AD of the manors of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...

in the Parker Library of

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus"), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th centur ...

, where it appears as ''Caddandun''. It appears as ''Cadandune'' in the ''Codex diplomaticus ævi Saxonici'' of circa 1053, and as ''Cadendone'' in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086. The name means 'Cada's down or hill'. Until 1897 the parish of Caddington was partly in Hertfordshire and partly in Bedfordshire.British History Online: Caddington
accessed September 2017. Caddington was once the centre of a thriving brick industry built around the rich source of clay. In 1908 there were two major brick fields. A "Caddington Blue" was a well-known engineering brick. Yet the assertion relating to the Caddington Blue is regarded by some as suspect: During the 1970s Bedfordshire County Council in conjunction with the Royal Commission On Historical Monuments (England), published the book ''Brickmaking: A History and Gazetteer''.''Brickmaking: A History and Gazetteer''
Survey of Bedfordshire; Author: Alan Cox, Contributors: Bedfordshire (England) County Council, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England); Edition illustrated; Publisher: Bedfordshire County Council, 1979; ; 110 pages. The book identifies 17 specific sites within the Caddington locale which are credited with producing "Greys". The common name for the plum-coloured brick produced from the flinty brick earths excavated from an area from Kensworth through Caddington to Stopsley is "Luton Grey". Much of Caddington is now urban and there has been much residential development in recent years with the provision of local facilities such as shops, schools and a public hall. Caddington still retains its village green and nearby is the medieval parish church, restored in Victorian times. Manshead CE Academy (formerly Dunstable Grammar School and then Manshead School) relocated to Caddington in 1971. Markyate Priory, which was founded in 1145 and disestablished in 1537, was situated in what was then the parish of Caddington, although that part of the parish was subsequently transferred to Markyate in 1897. Caddington has had various schools such as Willowfield and Heathfield Lower Schools and Five Oaks Middle School but these have since been combined into Caddington Village School.

Governance

The parish of Caddington historically straddled Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, with the boundary running from north to south through the middle of the village itself. The eastern section, which included the parish church of All Saints', was in Bedfordshire, whilst the western section was in Hertfordshire. At the southern end of the parish it included part of the village of

, where a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ease is deliberately bu ...

was built in 1734, dedicated to St John the Baptist. From 1835 the whole parish was included in the Luton Poor Law Union. An ecclesiastical parish was created for Markyate in October 1877 from parts of Caddington,

Flamstead Flamstead is a village and civil parish in north-west Hertfordshire, England, close to the junction of the A5 and the M1 motorway at junction 9. The name is thought by some historians to be a corruption of the original ''Verulamstead''. Fla ...

Studham Studham is a village and civil parish in the county of Bedfordshire. It has a population of 1,128. The parish bounds to the south of the Buckinghamshire border, and to the east is the Hertfordshire border. The village lies in the wooded south ...

and

Houghton Regis Houghton Regis is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, East of England. The parish is located in Central Bedfordshire, which includes the hamlets of Bidwell, Thorn, and Sewell. Houghton Regis, along with its contiguous neighbour ...

ecclesiastical parishes, although the civil parish boundaries were not changed at the same time. Proposals were put forward in 1888 to also make Markyate a civil parish and rationalise the boundaries between Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire in this area, but were not implemented. Under the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...

elected parish councils and district councils were established. Parishes which straddled county boundaries were to be split or otherwise have boundaries amended so as to place them wholly in one county. The parish of Caddington was split into two separate parishes, both called Caddington, one in Hertfordshire and one in Bedfordshire. The two new parishes came into effect on 13 December 1894 when the newly elected councils came into office. The Caddington (Hertfordshire) parish was included in the

Markyate Rural District Markyate Rural District was a short-lived rural district in Hertfordshire, England from 1894 to 1897, on the borders with Bedfordshire. The district was created under the Local Government Act 1894 from the parts of the Luton Rural Sanitary D ...

and the Caddington (Bedfordshire) parish was included in the

Luton Rural District Luton Rural District was a local authority in Bedfordshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It covered an area which almost surrounded but did not include the towns of Luton and Dunstable. Formation The district had its origins in the Luton Rural ...

. On 30 September 1897 the boundary changes first proposed in 1888 were finally brought into effect, making Markyate a civil parish and merging the rest of the two Caddington parishes into one, which was thereafter entirely in the Luton Rural District in Bedfordshire. Caddington parish was renamed "Caddington and Slip End" on 1 July 1980.

became a separate civil parish on 1 April 2001, with the remainder of the parish reverting to being called Caddington.

Sport and leisure

Caddington has a

Non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is s ...

team Caddington F.C. and a thriving cricket club with three adult teams and a youth development section. It is also home to Caddington Chequers FC who compete in the Leighton & District Sunday Football League. The Chequers Public house has also sponsored Caddington's newest football club, AFC Chequers Caddington who compete in the South Beds & district Sunday football league. Football and Cricket fixtures are hosted at the Caddington Recreation Association in Manor Road which, as well as providing sports facilities also has a function room and members' bar. Two local public houses can be found either side of the village green, namely The Cricketers and The Chequers. Caddington has an annual village show in September incorporating a produce show, dog show and craft fair.

Places of worship

Caddington has a number of local churches:
All Saints

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

, The Green, LU1 4BG. – An 11/12C church in the middle of the village.
St Thomas Apostle

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Church, Manor Road. (Served fro
St Margaret of Scotland
Farley Hill, Luton.) – A small church next to the Recreation & Social Club on the south side of the village. Mass Saturday 18:00. *Caddington

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul c ...

Church, 27 Luton Road, LU1 4AF. A dedicated church opposite All Saints. Sunday 11:00 and 18:15.
Aley Green Methodist Church
(

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

), Mancroft Road, Aley Green, LU1 4DR. – In the nearby village of Aley Green. See also
Luton Churches

Notes and references

Brickmaking - A History & Gazetteer 1979.

External links

Local EventsLocal Events (Backup server)Caddington Parish CouncilCaddington Local History Group (CADHIST)Centrebus services 46 and 231 serving CaddingtonCaddington pages
an
Chaul End pages
at the

Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Record Service The Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service is a county record office, holding archival material associated with Bedfordshire and Luton. Established in 1913 by George Herbert Fowler (1861-1940) as the Bedfordshire Record Office, it wa ...

Caddington Village Show
{{authority control Villages in Bedfordshire Civil parishes in Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire District