Thurleigh 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Borough of Bedford Bedford, or the Borough of Bedford, is a Districts of England, local government district with borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It is administered by Bedford Borough Council, ...

, north

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

, England, situated around north of

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

town centre.

History

Excavations have shown evidence the locality was occupied in the Iron-Age, Roman and

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

periods. In

Domesday 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 the

Middle English orthography Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

as to both modern 'th' digraph sounds was often in different forms particularly as to this county — the place is ''LaLega''. By 1372 it is ''Thyrleye''. In 1813, ''Thurleigh'', or ''Thurley'', is recorded as being in the Hundred of Willey and the

Deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

of Eaton. The scribes were particularly ecclesiastical for the county as ''Lega'' is a very Latin-esque form of ''leigh''. The latter is a very common word, rarely used today for meadow or clearing (lea) almost certainly an

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

word perhaps preceded by the

definite article In grammar, an article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" ...

, as early written in unrelated prose ''þǣre lēa''. Being in the

Danelaw The Danelaw (, ; ; ) was the part of History of Anglo-Saxon England, England between the late ninth century and the Norman Conquest under Anglo-Saxon rule in which Danes (tribe), Danish laws applied. The Danelaw originated in the conquest and oc ...

however a link to

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

cannot be ruled out. There was a church here in Saxon times. The current church has some parts still dating from around 1150, and at about that same time a castle was built here. The deanery of Eaton contains the rectories of Bolnhurst, Colmworth, Shelton, Staughton Parva, Tilbrook, Wilden and Yelden; the vicarages of Eaton Socon, Keysoe, Melchburn, Pertenhall, Renhold, Ravensden, Riseley, Roxton, Great Barford and Thurleigh; and the

perpetual curacy Perpetual curate was a class of resident Parish (Church of England)#Parish priest, parish priest or Incumbent (ecclesiastical), incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England an ...

of Dean.

Airfield

In 1941, during World War II, an airfield known as RAF Thurleigh was constructed on a plateau just north of the village for

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the Strategic bombing during World War II#Europe, strategic bombing of Germany in W ...

. It was used initially for training both RAF and Polish personnel, but in 1942 was turned over to the

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

and four squadrons of

B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...

es moved in, and over the next three years flew 341 bombing missions. A memorial to these men stands in the village. Events and characters from the USAAF's time at Thurleigh were used as the basis of the novel and film '' Twelve O'Clock High''. After the war the airfield was used by the Royal Aeronautical Establishment for research and development work. The runway was extended, necessitating the closure of the road between Thurleigh and Keysoe, and the demolition of the hamlet of Backnoe End. In 1968–71 the Commission for the Third London Airport (the " Roskill Commission") considered Thurleigh as one of its four short-listed sites, along with Cublington, Foulness (later known as Maplin Sands) and Nuthampstead. The RAE was largely closed down in the 1990s and the site is now used by various commercial enterprises.

Geography

Thurleigh is about 6 miles (10 km) north of the county town of

. As well as the village centre, the parish is spread across five "Ends", local parlance for a

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

– Church End, Cross End, Scald End, Backnoe End and Park End, covering an area of about six square miles. The land is undulating

boulder clay Boulder clay is an unsorted agglomeration of clastic sediment that is unstratified and structureless and contains gravel of various sizes, shapes, and compositions distributed at random in a fine-grained matrix. The fine-grained matrix consists o ...

, ranging in height from 200 ft. to 275 ft. above sea level. A stream runs through the Parish to the south forming a valley which cuts through to the underlying

Oxford Clay The Oxford Clay (or Oxford Clay Formation) is a Jurassic marine sedimentary rock formation underlying much of southeast England, from as far west as Dorset and as far north as Yorkshire. The Oxford Clay Formation dates to the Jurassic, specific ...

. The countryside around is in the main used for arable farming. A former airfield to the north of the village is now a business park and motor sports track. There are only minor roads in the parish, though the A6 and B660 are just a few miles away. These roads however are used as a

rat run Rat running (also known as rodent running or cut-through driving) is the practice by motorists of using residential side streets or any unintended short cut such as a parking lot, delivery service lane or cemetery road instead of the intended ...

and a 2007 survey recorded 600 vehicles per hour on Mill Road during the morning and evening

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice e ...

s, and 121 HGVs throughout the day.

Demography

The population of the civil parish, recorded in the 2001 census, is 696, and their mean age is 38.6 years with 88 of the people being over the age of 65 years. 372 of the population are considered to be economically active. There were 272 dwellings, of which 9 were unoccupied.

Economy

Part of the site of the former airfield now accommodates Thurleigh Business Park, and the runway is currently used for storage of cars. Another part of the site is used by Bedford Autodrome, a corporate hospitality centre. This includes Thurleigh Museum which is dedicated primarily to the airfield and life in the area during World War 2. Other major employers include Jackson Demolition, Monster Events, Star Hire and a number of agricultural businesses.

Community, sport and recreation

Regular events are held at the Village Hall, the Church, the Playing Field Club and the parish's only pub, the Jackal. There has been a hall in the village since 1927, and the current building dates from the 1980s. A youth club meets there bi-monthly. The playing field is used for cricket and football, and has a small children's play area. It is a registered charity. The Playing Field Club, built in the 1970s, provides changing rooms for the cricket team, which is the only organised sports team in the village. There are about 30 miles (48 km) of footpaths and bridleways within the parish. There are a few bus services that stop in the village. Thurleigh Primary School and Pre-School takes children aged between 2½ and 11 years old, and Breakfast Club and After-School extends the hours of care for the children of working parents. Older children are served by Sharnbrook Academy.

Landmarks

The Parish Church of Saint Peter is a grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

dating from approximately 1130, with 14th- and 15th-century additions and restored in the 1880s. The former vicarage was finished in 1750 for vicar Robert Lerogne. Other listed buildings include a windmill tower, built c.1890, and dwellings dating mainly from the 17th,18th and 19th centuries. The Baptist Chapel was built in 1888 on the same site as an earlier building. Thurleigh Castle was a medieval timber, motte-and-bailey, castle, but only earthworks survive today. In addition to the USAAF memorial previously mentioned, there is a War Memorial near the church to the men of the village who gave their lives in two world wars. Part of the village is a

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

References

External links

Thurleigh Parish Website

Thurleigh
A History of the County of Bedford, Volume 3, William Page, 1912
Thurleigh in 1986
Written accounts from the BBC Domesday Project {{authority control Villages in Bedfordshire Civil parishes in Bedfordshire Borough of Bedford