Stotfold, Bedfordshire
Photographed by James Derheim, European Focus Private Tours, in May of 2018
Stotfold is a town and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire,[3] England. The town covers 2,207 acres (8.93 km2) and the River Ivel passes through the town. The population of the parish at the 2021 census was 9,014.[1] The wider built-up area, which the Office for National Statistics defines to additionally include the adjoining Fairfield Park development, had a population of 12,310 at the 2021 census.[2] For the purposes of postal addresses, Stotfold comes under the post town of Hitchin; it was therefore in the postal county of Hertfordshire despite actually being in Bedfordshire.
The name Stotfold derives from the Old English stōdfald meaning a ‘stud farm‘.[4]
he parish church of St Mary the Virgin dates to about 1150 but was probably preceded by a series of wooden Saxon churches on the same site. The church is built of flint with Ashwell clunch stone dressings to the buttresses and is mainly in the Early Perpendicular style. In about 1450 the tower was added and the chancel widened, and it is believed that the baptismal font also dates from this time; it is octagonal and panelled.[13][14]
In about 1824 much work was done at the church which included plastering the roof of the north aisle and replacing both the mediaeval carvings and the 400-year-old pews, the latter being done by local contractor William Seymour of Arlesey. At the same time the old paintings on the walls were either destroyed or whitewashed over.[15]
