Old Warden Timeline

 

100BC - 50AD                       Late Iron Age Cremation Burial near Quince Hill (excavated in 1840’s)

                                              Celtic Bronze Mirror, possibly from a high-status grave (found when excavating Warden Tunnel 1850’s –                                               on display at The Higgins, Bedford) 

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1086                                      ‘Wardone’ listed in Domesday Survey

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Late C11                                Quince Hill Norman ring-work constructed, thought to be the manorial stronghold of ‘Wardone’s’                                                            tenant-in-chief, William Spec

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1135                                       Walter Espec, son or nephew of William Spec, gives marginal land in Warden to build a Cistercian                                                        Abbey

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C12                                         The tower of the parish church starts to be constructed in stone, possibly replacing a private timber                                                       chapel constructed by William Spec

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1376                                       Warden Abbey acquires a licence from Edward III to appropriate the parish church

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1380/81                                  Walter Clifton, abbot of Warden, sponsors a stained-glass window in the parish church

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1537                                        On 4th December Warden Abbey is the first of the greater monasteries to surrender to the Crown

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c1557                                       Edward Peake leaves money for the poor of Old Warden, the site of the original poor house now 24 &                                                    25 The Village, that building being the last village Workhouse.

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1558                                        Robert Gostwick boasts a new red-brick farmhouse on the site of the former monastery, and leaves

                                                in his will, 'To my son William Gostwyke the lease of Warden Abbey I do now dwell in’

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1695                                         Samuel Ongley, wealthy Kentish merchant, arrives and starts buying up land to create a country                                                            estate

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c1713                                       Queen Anne's Summer House built by Sir Samuel Ongley

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c1825/30                                  Robert Henley-Ongley, 3rd Baron Ongley of Old Warden, creates Swiss Garden and the Picturesque                                                    Model Village

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1841/2                                      Robert Henley-Ongley, 3rd Baron Ongley of Old Warden, beautifies the church interior with fine oak                                                      carvings

1872                                         Robert Henley-Ongley, 3rd Baron Ongley of Old Warden, sells the estate to wealthy industrialist,                                                            Joseph Shuttleworth

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1901                                         Reading and Recreation Room completed (now the village hall), the gift of Frank Shuttleworth.

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1940                                         Richard Shuttleworth, the last Squire of Old Warden, killed in plane crash. His mother, Dorothy                                                                Shuttleworth, inherits the whole estate.

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1944                                         Dorothy Shuttleworth Forms The Shuttleworth Trust

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1946                                         Shuttleworth College opens

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1963                                         The Shuttleworth Collection opens its doors to the public

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1968                                         Dorothy Shuttleworth dies

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1986                                         Old Warden School closes