Studham 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 ...

in the county 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 ...

. It has a population of 1,128. The parish bounds to the south of the

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

border, and to the east is the Hertfordshire border. The village lies in the wooded south facing dip slope of the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshir ...

. The

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 depi ...

of Holywell is located to the north of Studham, and forms part of the same civil parish. 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 it was recorded as ''Estodham''. Studham's church celebrated its

millennium A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannus, kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting ...

in 1997. The ancient parish of Studham straddled the Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire border. It also had a detached part known as Humbershoe which lay to the east of the rest of the parish, which contained the north-western part of the village of

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 ...

. Humbershoe became a separate

in 1866, and was separated from the ecclesiastical parish of Studham in October 1877 when it was included in the new ecclesiastical parish of St John Markyate Street. In December 1894, 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 u ...

, the parish of Studham was partitioned into two parts, one on each side of the county border. The Studham (Bedfordshire) parish was included in the Luton Rural District, whilst the Studham (Hertfordshire) parish was included in the Markyate Rural District. The two parishes were re-united as a single parish less than three years later, in September 1897, when the Studham (Hertfordshire) parish was transferred from Hertfordshire to Bedfordshire. The village currently has two pubs, the older of which, The Bell, dates till before the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of Kingdom of England, England's governanc ...

. In the early 20th century, work to make safe the old well in the pub garden revealed discarded or hidden civil war weapons. In the early evening of 23 May 1948 an ex- RAF

Handley Page Halifax The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifax has its orig ...

, registered '' G-AIZO'', and operated by Bond Air Services Ltd. carrying a cargo of

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus '' Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are al ...

s from

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

, Spain,

crashed "Crashed" is the third U.S. rock single, (the fifth overall), from the band Daughtry's debut album. It was released only to U.S. rock stations on September 5, 2007. Upon its release the song got adds at those stations, along with some Alternativ ...

at Studham.Aeroplane Monthly - May 1984 issue - ''Unscheduled Arrival'' article - P. 252-253

References

External links

Studham pages
at the

Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records 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 w ...

Villages in Bedfordshire Civil parishes in Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire District {{Bedfordshire-geo-stub