Old Warden, Bedfordshire

Description
Warden, Old, a village and a parish in Beds, 1 1/2 mile from Southill station on the Bedford and Hitchin branch of the M.R., 4 miles W from Biggleswade, and 7 SE from Bedford. There is a post, money order, and telegraph office under Biggleswade. Acreage, 33 64; population, 440. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. The manor belongs to the Whitbread family. Old Warden Park is a modern mansion of stone in the Tudor style, standing in a pleasant well-wooded park of about 350 acres. A Cistercian abbey was founded here in 1135 by Walter de Esper, of which only a small fragment remains. At Quince Hill there are the remains of an encampment supposed to be Roman. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; gross value, £436 with residence, in the gift of the Whitbread family. The church is a building of stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch, and an embattled western tower. A beautiful east window was inserted in 18 90.