History
A Neolithic henge was erected on the site of the current Tesco Supermarket on Riverfield Drive dating between 4000 and 2000 BC. Despite this there is very little evidence of any major settlement in Newnham in pre-historic times.
Risinghoe Castle was built in the area sometime after the Norman Invasion of 1066. Newnham derives its name from Newnham Priory which was established on the banks of the River Great Ouse by Simon de Beauchamp, Baron of Bedford in 1165. The de Beauchamp family were the owners of Bedford Castle as well as Risinghoe Castle, and were an important family in medieval Bedford and England. The priory was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1541.
Much of the western section of the Castle Road neighbourhood was developed in the 19th Century. The rest of Newnham remained as undeveloped farmland and a site for gravel extraction until the 20th Century. By then the expansion of Bedford required more housing and land either side of Newnham Avenue was developed in the interwar period. Bedford's old power station was built in the area in 1955 and was subsequently demolished in 1987. The final stage of Newnham's development happened during the early 1990s. With the demolition of the old power station, the land was redeveloped into the Priory Marina and country park and the Riverfield housing estate.
Read more about this topic: Newnham, Bedford
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