Riseley, Bedfordshire
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Riseley is a village and civil parish located in North Bedfordshire. It has a population of around 2000, and is near the villages of Bletsoe, Sharnbrook, Swineshead, Pertenhall, Keysoe, Thurleigh and Melchbourne. The nearest town to Riseley is Rushden in the neighbouring county of Northamptonshire, approximately 8 miles away to the North West. The county town of Bedford is approximately 9 miles to the South of Riseley. The village has one watercourse flowing through it known locally as the 'Brook' which in medieval times the village was built around.
Facilities
The village has two schools, Riseley Lower School which is for 4-9 year olds. Riseley Lower is a small school for young children, with a catchment area of Riseley, Pertenhall, Bletsoe and Little Staughton & Great Staughton. Margaret Beaufort Middle School takes pupils aged 9–13 from the same surrounding villages as the lower school. The school has about 380 students. The Middle School is named after Lady Margaret Beaufort who lived in nearby Bletsoe. Riseley is within the catchment area of Sharnbrook Upper School and Community College, located four miles away in Sharnbrook. The village has one pub, The Fox and Hounds, with another The Five Bells recently closed, despite fierce local opposition. Riseley has a small police station. The Fox and Hounds has a particularly good reputation for its fine steak meals and eccentric landlord.[citation needed]
Riseley Village Miscellany
Riseley homes one of the few remaining blacksmiths in England He is a blacksmith as opposed to a farrier and as such does not shoe horses, although his father did many years ago. He mainly repairs farm machinery and carries out small fabrications.
Riseley is also home to a Master Thatcher. He teaches at Knuston Hall's Thatching School and thatches locally. He also thatches for the National Trust and English Heritage.
There is a local church, All Saints Riseley, the vicar of which is Martin Bailey.
Other facilities include a village hall, playing field, garage, village shop, a Bed and Breakfast, and on the outskirts of the village, a shooting range facility.
There is also a care home for the elderly called Brook House.
Famous names that live in the village include children's author Julia Jarman, the Youtube sensation 'Friday Hat Man'. and God.
Riseley also has a cricket team and a football team that both play at the village playing field.
Folklore
Although Riseley is very small there are some historic rumours that circulate through the village. One of the most popular stories is that of Catherine of Aragon staying in the village, on her way to Castle Ashby. There is a rock placed underneath the main sign of Riseley, opposite "The Five Bells" public house, which rumour says she sat on in order to have a rest when the horses of her carriage stopped to drink. During the war, a British fighter plane crashed when it ran out of fuel at the bottom end of the village. The crew all died.
Riseley in WW2
During World War 2 Riseley was used by the USAAF as a base to store and fill bombs which were then forwarded to local American air bases. A large camp was set up at the top of the Carriage Drive to Melchbourne House to house the troops. The camp included a cinema. The American airmen stationed in Riseley Camp occasionally held parties for local children and there are still residents living in Riseley who can recall attending the children's parties on the camp. A 'Forward Filling Station' was set up in the woods at the top of the carriage drive where bombs were filled with gas. The last remaining containers of gas were removed in the 1970s. Bombs were also stored on the then closed Sharnbrook Road just past the junction with the Butts.
In October 1943 a B17 Flying Fortress aircraft returning from a bombing raid in Germany, crashed in a cottage garden at the north end of the High Street. The crew had baled out before the crash as the plane had been seriously damaged by a German fighter aircraft on its return from Germany.[1]
Riseley Pubs
Although there is now only one pub remaining open for trade in Riseley, there have been as many as eight over the years. The White Horse situated in the High Street opposite the junction with Lowsden Lane closed in the early 1970s. The Royal Oak in the High Street near Maple Gardens is a very attractive thatched, old cottage style building and closed as a pub in the 1990s. The George and Dragon was open for business where Waldocks Close is now. The Red Lion, situated on the corner of Church Lane and Gold Street is now, like the rest of the 'old' pubs a family home. The Five Bells situated on the High Street opposite the bottom end of Gold Street closed for business in December 2008 and now stands empty.Between the Five Bells and the Fox and Hounds stood "The Boot", now a family home. The last remaining pub in the village is the Fox and Hounds which remains a busy thriving hostelry and very much traditional village pub with a renowned restaurant.
Riseley High Street
Riseley High Street runs more or less North South for a distance of one mile from end to end and was designated as a Turnpike in May 1802. A widened area in the grass verge at the southern end of the High Street where the High Street is joined by Sharnbrook Road marks where the tollbooth stood. This road junction is still known as Tollbar Corner. A Blue Plaque mounted on the end wall facing the High Street of the cottage adjoining 76 High Street commemorates the placing of the plaque 200 years after the Toll road designation.
Riseley High Street has been the scene of flooding over the years, when sudden downpours of rain have caused the Brook to 'come out' starting at a point opposite the blacksmiths. The water has been known the rise up to the height of a small car and stretch as far as the Gold Street bridge in the south and Brook House in the north. Recent regular clearing of reeds by Anglian Water has dramatically reduced the frequency of these events.
There are two redundant Chapels in Riseley High Street, the Methodist Chapel opposite The Barns. The chapel was rebuilt in the 1990s and now serves as a very characterful private residence. The other chapel was a Moravian chapel which later became, for many years, the Chapel Art Gallery and is situated in the High Street close to Maple Gardens. The site of a third chapel, now a grass ameniety area opposite Riseley's only shop on the Keysoe Road/High Street junction only has a few gravestones remaining as an indicator that a Baptist chapel was sited there.
References
- ^ Riseley Brick