Studham

Studham
Bedfordshire
St Mary, Studham
Location
Grid reference:	TL022157
Location:	51°49’53"N, -0°31’1"W
Data
Population:	1,127  (2001)
Post town:	Dunstable
Postcode:	LU6
Dialling code:	01582
Local Government
Council:	Central Bedfordshire
Parliamentary constituency:	South West Bedfordshire

Studham is a village in Bedfordshire, in the very south, in a tail-end of the county and running down to the Hertfordshire border. The Buckinghamshire border is a few hundred yards west. This was a village of 1,127 souls in 2001. Whipsnade is just to the north, and the closest town is Dunstable, due north.

The village lies in the wooded south facing dip slope of the Chiltern Hills. The hamlet of Holywell is located to the north of Studham, and forms part of the same civil parish.

Parish church

The parish church is St Mary the Virgin. It has fine war memorial panels and a photographic memorial too. There is a beautiful Norman font carved with animals and foliage, and 13th century foliate capitals.

The church celebrated its millennium in 1997.

History

In the Domesday Book of the village is recorded as Estodham.

The ancient parish of Studham straddles the Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire border, as do the civil and ecclesiastical parishes, although the latter are slightly smaller in extent.

The village currently has two pubs, the older of which, The Bell, dates from before the Civil War. In the early 20th century, work to make safe the old well in the pub garden revealed discarded or hidden Civil War weapons.

The village still retains substantial common land that was not lost as a result of the Inclosure Acts.

In the early evening of 23 May 1948 an ex-RAF Handley Page Halifax, registered G-AIZO, and operated by Bond Air Services Ltd. carrying a cargo of apricots from Valencia in Spain, crashed at Studham.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Studham)

• Studham pages at the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service