BEDFORD
ARCHITECTURAL
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
& LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY
CONSERVATION MATTERS
by David Fletcher
Honorary Secretary
of the Society's Conservation Sub-Committee
I was recently flattered to have been asked to join the committee of The Bedford Society and following the Society's merger with BALHS, became secretary of the Conservation Sub Committee of BAALHS. As someone who had previously taken an outsider's view of the conservation of Bedford and its buildings it was stimulating to find myself in an insider's position.
As such I was suddenly in the company of a small group of people who not only take the time and trouble to find out what horrors the 'powers that be' have in store for the undeserving people of Bedford, but also know enough about the system, to stand up to them. Having said that, it was depressing to find that the more one looked behind the scenes, the more obvious it became that some of the people who are charged, by accident or design, with an obligation to preserve our built environment are among those who seem to disrespect it most.
Back in 2008, St.Luke's United Church, (James Horsford, 1864), was offered for sale. The owners, the United Reformed Church, ordered the sale by auction of much of the moveable furniture and soon after put in place plans to saw up and remove for sale the pews, pulpit and other fixtures. In what was to become its last act of rescue, and in the nick of time, the Bedford Society was successful in obtaining a Grade II listing for the building, which has now been sold to Bedford School. We believe that its listed status will protect this fine building and trust that that the new owners will treat the fabric and interior with the deference they deserve, so that future alterations are carried out in sympathy with the historic structure.
St Luke's United Reformed Church (formerly the Moravian Church) in St Peter's Street, built 1864-65 (architect James Horsford). On the left the former Single Sisters' House (1751).
The Bedford Waterworks Beam Engine.
The engine was manufactured by Goddard and Massey in Nottingham
and installed in the waterworks in 1878. It is a condensing, rotative, double acting, duplex compound pumping machine, fiited with flat single ported side valves. The engine worked continuously for 81 years from 1878 until November 19th 1959.
This was one of two engines employed to pump water almost 150 feet from river level to the top of the neighbouring hill (above what is now Manton Lane). The treatment works on the hill top then supplied the water to the town.
( Bob Ricketts, Bedford Sewage and Waterworks. BAALHS Newsletter April 2009. Geoffrey Sands, Industrial Archaeology in Bedfordshire 1967 )
The Victorian steam beam engine used in Bedford's first public waterworks and preserved on the Bedford College campus, now at potential risk of removal or destruction.