- source: Family History Library Catalog
- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Ridgmont is a small village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England. It is located beside junction 13 of the M1 motorway, and close to Milton Keynes and Woburn Abbey. The 2001 UK census stated the total population to be 418, reducing to 411 at the 2011 census.
The parish is first mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, by its original name of Segenhoe, which was approximately 500m south east from where the village now lies. In 1227 the name "Rugemund" was first recorded, taken from the French 'rouge mont' which means "red hill".
The surrounding valley has underlying 'Upper Jurassic Oxford Clay' which is suitable for making bricks. In 1935 the Ridgmont Brickworks were built by the Ridgmont Fletton Brick Company. By 1979, as part of the London Brick Company, the works had 25 chimneys and was said to be the second-largest brickworks in the world. The seam of clay has now been worked out and the former brickworks now houses the primary Amazon.co.uk warehouse for the United Kingdom.
Research Tips
- The website British History Online provides three chapters of the Victoria County History Series on Bedfordshire. The first covers the religious houses of the county; the second and third provides articles on the parishes of the county. The parishes are arranged within their "hundreds".
- GENUKI main page for Bedfordshire which provides information on various topics covering the whole of the county, and also a link to a list of parishes. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. This is a list of pre-1834 ancient or ecclesiastical parishes but there are suggestions as to how to find parishes set up since then. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and therefore the reader should check additional sources if possible.
- Bedfordshire family history societies are listed in GENUKI.
- The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date and from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851. There is a list of all the parishes in existence at that date with maps indicating their boundaries. The website is very useful for finding the ecclesiastical individual parishes within large cities and towns.
- A Vision of Britain through Time, Bedfordshire, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72 which often provides brief notes on the economic basis of the settlement and significant occurences through its history.
- These two maps indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.
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