IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Silver Birch Avenue, LU5 5QJ

Looking north across The Green, the site of the village cricket pitch, from the entrance to Houghton Hall.

This 1960s community shopping centre was opened by the comedy actress Hattie Jacques.

View of Bedford Square showing the Health Centre and Library (now demolished and rebuilt).

The chancel of All Saints, Houghton Regis leading to the altar, and behind that the plain East Window. In former times this window would have been filled with mediæval stained glass, no doubt removed and destroyed by the iconoclasts of the C17th under Cromwell. The area around the altar still contains many monuments including Image]

I was shown this old brass in All Saints, Houghton Regis by one of the caretakers there, as it is normally covered. The brass commemorates William Walley, a former vicar of the church. The inscription is quite difficult to read, but this is my transcription of it: "Dear to the soul of William Walley Intyme (?) vicar of this church which deceased the year of our lord m ccccc vi [1506] on whose soul Jesu (?) have mercy amen." The "Intyme" may mean "one time" or may be "sutime" meaning "sometime" - and the date is open to conjecture, though I believe 1506 to be correct from other sources. Try as I might, I can't make out the word before "have mercy", but think it may be "Isu" = Jesu Note that the date is a little strange in several ways. Firstly the M for a thousand is either missing or if it's at the end of the previous line, it looks more like y(superscript t) - which is the old abbreviation for "that"; secondly the five hundred part is rendered as CCCCC rather than the correct D; thirdly the vi for 6 is a bit malformed too!

There is another All Saints Church some miles north in Houghton Conquest implying a parish connection.

This little carved lion rests by the [now missing] feet of a knight thought to be Sir John (de) Sewell in a niche on the southern wall of the nave of All Saints, Houghton Regis. From what I can gather, Sir John lived in the late C13th and early C14th, the latter date being contemporary with the main structure of the church, so if this monument is to him, it has probably always been here - as has this little lion.

A side view of the wonderful C12th "Aylesbury" font in All Saints, Houghton Regis. The main pattern at the top here seems to have something of a Celtic influence. Note the somewhat wavy perimeter of the bowl.