Arlesey Dates

1086: Mentioned in the doomsday book. Records the principal landowners as being the Bishop of Durham

1180: The church built by the monks of Waltham Abbey in Essex.

1220: About this time the church was extended and extra windows.

1646: Sir Samuel Brown, bought Arlesey Manor and settled down to live the life of a country gentleman.

1750: The parish of Astwick was unable to provide for a priest of its own, so it was combined with Arlesey.

1800: The Church tower fell down and was replaced by a small wooden steeple it was later replaced by a stone tower.

1804: Arlesey Inclosure Act passed. This removed the prior rights of local people to rural land they had often used for generations.

1805: The White Horse at 243 High Street opened. Still and active, open pub.

1840: The Lamb Hotel opened, the whole site covered some 6 acres of land.

1845: The Three Tuns, 86 High Street opened. Former 15th Century beamed and thatched house (possibly a converted farmhouse)

1850: Brickground Hotel 47 Hospital Road. Established when the railway was opened. Became The Mallard Public House.

1850: The Great Northern Railway opened linking London to the North via York. It was this railway development that encouraged the growth of the brick making industry in the Arlesey area. The original station at Arlesey was known as Arlesey and Shefford Road.

1852: Brickworks opened in the south of the parish by Robert Beart of Godmanchester, described at the time as "immense works". By 1858 the annual production was estimated to be 8,000,000 bricks plus 1,000,000 agricultural drainage pipes. By the late 1860s Beart's had been joined at Arlesey by three other brickworks all ranged alongside the railway.

1857: The True Briton Public House, 27 Hospital Road opened. Still active

1857: The opening of a tramway from the GNR Line to the new site of The Three Counties Asylum to carry the construction material and later goods.

1860: Three Counties Asylum opened. On the 8th March the first patients were admitted, six men and six women were transferred from the Bedford Asylum.

1860: The Steam Engine Public House 68 Church Lane, rebuilt 1895 Charles Wells Still active renamed The Vicars Inn Free House.

1861: Three Counties Asylum is recorded as now having 460 patients, 212 men and 248 women. On average 125 men and 131 women were regularly employed. Of these 66 men worked in the garden and farm alone while 33 women worked in the laundry and wash house.

1861: St. Peter's National School opened, later changed name to Arlesey St. Peter's Board School.

1863: The Crown Public House opened.

1865: The Rose and Crown Public House opens

1865: The City Arms Public House opens.

1865: The Prince of Wales Public House, 60 Hitchin Road opens. Note; in the mid 1970s there was a miniature railway in the garden.

1866: On the 1st April Arlesey Sidings Station opened, Then on 1st July 1886 the name was changed to Three Counties Station.

1868: The Stag Public House opens.

1876: Arlesey Sidings School opened on the 2nd October.

1876: On the 23rd December there was a railway accident at Arlesey Sidings Station when an express train crashed into a derailed goods train. The engine driver, fireman and three passengers on the express train were killed.

1877: Church tower rebuilt to house six bells.

1880: Working Men's Club opened, it was situated in what was then called Straw Street with a reading room, a lecture hall with seating for 300 people and a billiards room.

1884: A serious outbreak of smallpox occurred in the Three Counties Asylum, thirteen patients and a nurse died.

1895: The number of patients in the Asylum had reached 1,116.

1896: Arlesey Football Club founded.

1901: The Steam Engine Public House 68 Church lane, rebuilt, Charles Wells. Still active.

1901: what is known today as the Green Lagoon is abandoned for the newer chalk works.

1910: St. Andrew's Church built at the southern end of the village to cater for people living in the area.

1918: Arlesey Women's Institute formed.

1920: Arlesey first cinema opened in Hospital Road, it was named the Victory and had a chequered career with several name changes. It was known as the Premier in the 1930s and the Cosy Cinema in the 1950s. It closed several times before the final closure in June 1962.

1925: Owen's Pump Works closes.

1926: Bricklayers Arms, Hospital Road. now a house

1926: The Stag Public House, Davis Row,opened in 1868 now a house

1926: The City Arms Public House Closed

1926: Arlesey St. Peter's Board School closes in December with the pupils transferred to Arlesey Sidings School.

1927: Authority received from the Ministry of Health to change the Asylum's name to The Three Counties Hospital.

1929: Arlesey Women's Institute Hall officially opened in May. During the Second World War it was taken over by the army for billeting troops.

1930: Last clay pit (Blue lagoon) closes and allowed to fill with water after steam pump stopped working

1933: Arlesey and Shefford Road Station renamed Arlesey and Henlow Station.

1950: Arlesey Bury was acquired by Three Counties Hospital as a home for nursing staff.

1953: Most of the narrow gauge track removed, small section left to boiler house Fairfield Hospital

1955: Etonbury School opened on the 18th April as a county secondary school, the first head teacher was Mr. R.N. Alexander.

1959: The Arlesey & Henlow and Three Counties Stations were closed for passenger traffic on the 5th January 1959 Under the "Beeching Plan"

1960: Three Counties Station closed for goods traffic on the 28th November.

1960: Three Counties Hospital renamed Fairfield Hospital.

1964: Lamb Hotel closes.

1967: Biggs & Wall, engineering firm move to Arlesey, on a four acre site in Hitchin Road.

1968: Arlesey & District Dramatic Society formed, their first play was "Book of the Month", performed in 1969.

1969: Arlesey Road Bridge opened in October.

1971: Community Centre opened with a village hall, library, youth club and medical centre.

1974: The Old Moat purchased by The Bedfordshire Wildlife Trust and made into a nature reserve.

1975: Etonbury School redesignated as a Middle School. School's heated outdoor swimming pool opened.

1977: Old Steam Shovel was recovered from Arlesey Pit, known as the Blue Lagoon, it was restored went to the Museum of Lincolnshire Life.

1979: The disused primary school demolished.

1981: New Methodist Church opened at a cost of 85,000.

1983: Arlesey Women's Institute Hall re-opened on the 29th October two years after being gutted by fire on 15th April 1981, the cost of restoration and rebuilding being around 24,000.

1985: The Crown Public House closes, the site is now part of a new development called Crown Lodge.

1988: Arlesey Station reopened on the 3rd October on the site of the old Arlesey and Henlow Station.

1992: Butterley Brick Ltd suspends production at its Arlesey plant from the 1st October.

1993: Preliminary work on the Arlesey/Stotfold Bypass by Bedfordshire County Council starts.

1994: The Rose and Crown, 200 High Street closes as does

1994: The Star public house, The High Street, now an indian restaurant

1995: Work on the Arlesey/Stotfold Bypass finally starts.

1995: Arlesey Town Football Club reach the FA Vase Final at Wembley and defeat the favourites Oxford City 2-1.Pact International closes its warehouse and packaging plant and relocates to Peterborough.

1996: Arlesey/Stotfold Bypass opens to traffic for the first time from lunchtime on Friday March 29th, the construction cost 12 million.

1999: 24th-25th July, Arlesey Town Football Club's new ground in Hitchin Road officially opened.

1999: The Prince of Wales Public House closes, first opened in 1865 now houses.

1999: After a 139 years Fairfield Hospital closes and the site sold to London based developer Wiggins for housing.

1999: In March Arlesey Conservation for Nature purchased Glebe Meadows, this site is now held in perpetuity by The Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Wildlife Trust.

2000: Arlesey First Scout Group new headquarters officially opened in June.

2001: The Steam engine bought as a free house, name change to The Vicars Inn Public House.

2009: The Three Tuns, 86 High Street converted into small housing development.

2004: Work began in April on Fairfield Hospital site to build a new community. The development will be known as Fairfield Park.