Eversholt is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

located in

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 was mentioned 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 ...

and is over 1000 years old. "Eversholt" comes from

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

meaning "wood of the wild boar".

Overview

For many years, most of the land in the village was owned by the

Dukes of Bedford Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third ...

, and most of the inhabitants worked on the Bedford estate. The estate still forms an important, although lesser, part of village life. Most of the land is used for agriculture. There are about a dozen small businesses operating in converted farm buildings. The current population is about 420. The last shop in the village closed in 1994. The Church of Saint John the Baptist was originally built at the centre of the village in the twelfth century, and is still used regularly. There is a modern village hall (a replacement for the old Reading Room which burned down in 1984), a tennis court, a pond built by the residents themselves, an

open-air swimming pool In British English, a lido ( , ) is a public outdoor swimming pool and surrounding facilities, or part of a beach where people can swim, lie in the sun, or participate in water sports. On a cruise ship or ocean liner, the lido deck feature ...

, and a pub, the Green Man (owned by

Candice Brown Candice is a given name and a variant spelling of the name Candace. People Notable people with the name include: *Candice Accola, American actress (''The Vampire Diaries'') * Candice Carty-Williams, British writer *Candice Bergen, American actr ...

, 2016 champion of

The Great British Bake Off ''The Great British Bake Off'' (often abbreviated to ''Bake Off'' or ''GBBO'') is a British television baking competition, produced by Love Productions, in which a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds, att ...

Eversholt Cricket Club Eversholt is a village and civil parish located in Bedfordshire, England. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book and is over 1000 years old. "Eversholt" comes from Anglo-Saxon meaning "wood of the wild boar". Overview For many years, most ...

plays matches every week in summer. Eversholt Lower School educates children from five to nine years old, and has around 80 pupils from the village and surrounding areas. At age nine (the end of Year 4) children transfer to Parkfields Middle School in nearby Toddington. There is a school for children from four to nine years old, with about 70 pupils from the village and surrounding area. The cricket ground was, for many years, one of the only grounds in the world to have trees in the playing field - there were two. Local rules dictated that a ball hitting any part of a tree was dead and two runs were awarded. A copper beech at the Pavilion end of the ground was declared diseased and taken down in 1987 and a beech tree at the Village Hall end fell in October 2002, just a few weeks before it was due to be cut down. It fell whilst small children were playing at a Sunday football club, but none were harmed. The tree was then made into wood chips for the local school playground, various wooden objects such as bowls which were auctioned for charity, and a bench was made for the pond area. The Millennium Pond, built in 2000 was transformed from an old field. It is now an area of woodland and plants containing a large pond connected to a stream. The residents built this themselves, and many organisations donated plants or trees, including the school. The Eversholt Village Charity has been operating for at least 200 years. It owns properties in the village, and distributes income annually to students, to pensioners, and to the church.

Transport

Ridgmont railway station Ridgmont railway station is a small unstaffed railway station that serves the village of Ridgmont in Bedfordshire. The station is about away from Ridgmont on the other side of the M1 Motorway, (beside Junction 13), Brogborough and Husborne Cra ...

is the nearest train station to the village and can be reached via frequent bus services.

Notable residents

E. W. Royce Edward William Royce (11 August 1841 – 24 January 1926) was a British actor, singer and dancer noted for playing in Victorian burlesque at London's Gaiety Theatre, usually alongside Nelly Farren, Edward O'Connor Terry and Kate Vaughan until 18 ...

(1841–1926), actor and dancer at the Gaiety Theatre was born here.

References

External links

Village website

Cricket Club website

The ''Other'' Village Website

Tennis Club Website
{{authority control Villages in Bedfordshire Civil parishes in Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire District