Brickhill Parish Council

The Parish Council is holding another of our regular tidy ups in Brickhill on Saturday 18 July starting at 10 am meet outside Beauchamp Lower School.  If you can spare an hour or so to help  improve our local environment please  join us.  Gloves and equipment will be provided.  Everyone welcome!

(Audit Commission Act 1998 Accounts and Audit (Amendment)(England) Regulations 2006)

Notice is hereby given that the audit for the year ended 31 March 2009 was completed on 4 June 2009 and the accounts are now available for inspection by local electors in accordance with Section 14 of the Audit commission Act 1998.  The requisite information is available for inspection by appointment.  Please contact the Clerk, Delia Shephard to arrange a viewing.

clerk@brickhillparishcouncil.gov.uk

01234 271708

Elections for the 13 seats on Brickhill Parish Council were held on Thursday 4 June 2009 and the following members were elected:

North Ward:

Patricia Sylvia Marriott   18 Leven Walk, Bedford MK41 7XE

Charles Royden   The Vicarage Calder Rise Bedford Mk41 7UY

Raymond John Seymour  11 Calder Rise  Bedford MK41 8DU

Andrew Edward Wilkins  33 Douglas Road Bedford MK41 7YF

South & West Ward

Stuart Buchanan  19 Starling Way  Bedford MK41 7HW

Charles Stuart Green  39 Larkway  Bedford MK41 7YF

Patricia Laura Ovenell   12 Nightingale Avenue Bedford MK41 7JB

Wendy Rider   23 Orwell Close Bedford Mk41 7BQ

Raymond Waterhouse   64 Curlew Crescent Bedford MK41 7HZ

East Ward

Peter John Blakeman 15 Dove Road Bedford MK41 7AA

Gurmel Singh Chambers  16 Trent Road, Bedford MK41 7EF

Mark Fitzpatrick  20 Nursery Gardens, Bedford MK41 8DU

Joanne Elizabeth Laybourn  43 Fulmar Road, Bedford MK41 7JZ

The new councillors take office on 10th June 2009 and there will be a meeting of the new council on  Thursday 11th June 2009 at St Mark’s Church & Community Centre, commencing at 7.30 pm.

This year sees the 50th anniversary of the birth of Modern Brickhill.  It was at the end of 1959 that the first houses were completed and occupied on 150 acres of land the old Bedford Council had bought from the estate of Brickhill Farm.   As landowners, the Council were able to extend the whole development and were free to adopt a more socially responsible attitude than would be the case today - providing shops at Brickhill Drive, land for the Baptist Church and the pub at the Bird in Hand as well as laying the impressive sweep of Robin Hill and Merlin Gardens. Housing design was specific in minute detail - not just for Council housing but also for private houses for sale - the first houses on Brickhill Drive were selling for £2,800! 

Mention of Brickhill Farm reminds us that, before the Brickhill Estate was developed, an older Brickhill existed most notably in for the form of  Brickhill House, said to be a 17th Century make-over of a much older manor house.  The residence of the Foster family, it was in its heyday in the 1820s, when the famous American author, Washington Irving, came to pay court to the daughter of the house, Emily Foster - amazingly she turned him down!  The house fell on sad times in the 20th century and was eventually destroyed by fire in 1946. 

Fast forward to 2009 and the Parish Council is keen to mark our 50th birthday in proper fashion.  Do you have any suggestions for events or festivities? Do let us know we will encourage local initiatives as best we can. Perhaps we will organise a Time-team stage dig of the foundations of Brickhill House?   On a personal note - is there anyone who remembers Brickhill House or the Farm before 1946?  Or the estate in the early 60s? Perhaps you were among the very first to move in? If so we are anxious to hear from you, so we can record your memories for posterity and keep them in our Parish Archive.

All together now:  Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Brickhill ……………..

More dates your diary - here are the dates of the meetings of Brickhill Parish Council’s Planning Committee to July 2009.

Parish Council Planning Committee Meetings:   7pm 16 July 2009.

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Meetings will be held at St Mark’s Church Community Centre, Calder Rise, Brickhill.