‘Cyril Bates’ shop is still remembered for school uniforms by many Bedfordians today. The Bates family came from Watford, Hertfordshire in the eighteenth century. They worked on the land. Family names Thomas and Benjamin re-occurred...
Henry Adair Orr was born in Stratford, County Wicklow, Ireland where his family owned a cotton and calico printing business. He next spent some years in Victoria, Australia as an early colonist and pastoralist. Finally,...
Thomas Wesley Turnley was born in Lambeth, London, on 9 December 1809, the sixth and youngest son of John Samuel and Susanna, (nee Billing) Turnley. His father was a furniture manufacturer, ‘chair maker’, ‘fancy chair...
As you enter Foster Hill Road cemetery (FHR) through the arch, quite soon your eye is taken on the right to an unusual row of large granite gravestones placed flat on the ground. Each of...
For the last 7 years of his church ministry, until his death at the age of 61, the Reverend Stephen Waller was the Rector of St Cuthbert’s Church, Bedford. He and his third wife, Sarah...
Daniel Joseph O’Connell is often remembered as the son of his famous Irish father, also Daniel O’Connell, known as ‘The Liberator’. Such is the pride in the work of his father for Irish rights that...
John Paviour and his wife Emma had 11 children. This article follows the family of Harry James Paviour, John’s third son, who lived all his life in Bedford and is buried at Foster Hill Road...
John Frederick Nutter is best remembered as the driving force, in his role as Chairman of the Management Committee, of the planning and building of Bedford County Hospital (now ‘South Wing’) He also served the...
Many visitors to the cemetery have long been intrigued by this grave. The town of ‘Maryborough’ and the area ‘Queen’s County’ mentioned on the gravestone do not appear on any modern map of Ireland. The...
John had a difficult start in life but managed to overcome it to become a respected citizen and public servant of Bedford. He was born on 24 November 1839 and baptized on 29 December at...