Posted by Brian Lilley 'Just over an hour up the M1 from Pinner is Kempston, a quiet semi-rural town in Bedfordshire a couple of miles south of Bedford, the county town. Actually, as is often the case with English towns and villages, Kempston is in fact spread over several centres: Kempston, Kempston Church End and Kempston Hardwick. At Kempston Church End, (signposted Kempston Rural - confused?) we found All Saints Church, right on the River Ouse.
on 4/26/2001, 10:21 pm
Whilst in the UK, Mark & Julie Hill visited Kempston in Bedforshire and took photos of some LILLEY graves in the grounds of the All Saints Church there. I wish to thank them for allowing these photos to now appear in the photo album of this web site. But I would also like, with their kind permission, to share their experience whilst they were there, so here is an excerpt of what Julie wrote -
The church celebrated its 900th anniversary last year. Among some fine and elaborate headstones, Mark discovered three Lilley graves: John and Elizabeth, Ann and West, and Mary & Thomas, and their children Elizabeth, Matthias and William. The details on the first two headstones were fading into the stone and the moss, but the third was beautifully clear. (Maybe it had been re-done, as the date order was puzzling.) According to the helpful local cleaning the church, Matthias and William were the last men hanged in Bedfordshire, on 4 April 1829, for poaching.
She told us that Bedfordshire was once a lacecemaking centre and the local custom was to engrave significant events onto the bobbins used in the lacemaking; that there was a bobbin called
the 'Hanging bobbin' which recorded this event, and was worth thousands of pounds.'
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