Keysoe Village
Keysoe is a parish in two parts, Keysoe and Keysow Row. Keysoe parish is a part of olde Englande as there are farms and fields that have been there since before 1500, but one of the two villages in Keysoe parish, Keysoe Row, has medieval timber-framed houses along the village street. The church of Keysoe is two kilometres to the north and separated by the fields once farmed from these houses by men long gone.

The church has a 15th century tower with lovely openings, pinnacled buttresses, gargoyles, and a spire with three tiers of dormer windows. It has seen a miracle that no one could dispute, for a tablet on the wall above the entrace door tells us of the miraculous escape of one William Dickins, who fell from the tower in 1718 and was heard to exclaim to his brother as he fell, "Lord! Daniel! What is the matter? Lord Jesus Christ help me." The Lord helped him as he survived the fall and then for 40 years more.

The tablet is set high on the wall records the event thus:
The Great God and Our Saviour
Jesus Christ, who preserved the
life of William Dickins, April 17, 1718 when
he was pointing the steepol
and fell from the rige of the middel window
on the spiar over the south-west pinackel
he dropt upon the batelment
and their broak his leg and foot
and drove down 2 long, copein stones
so fell to the ground with his neck
upon one standard of his chear
when the other end took the ground
which was the nearest of killing him.
Yet when he see he was faring crid
out to his brother lord Daniel
Wats the matter Lord have mercy
Upon me Christ have mercy upon
me, Lord Jesus Christ help me. But
now almost to the ground
Died November 29, 1759, Aged 73 years
Inside the church is a 13th century coffin lid, an early 14th century gravestone with a Norman inscription, and a font with an old prayer cut in the stone in Norman French 700 years ago begging us who pass by to pray for the soul of him who gave it.

Keysoe is mentioned in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086 but it has a place in the life of a greater conqueror, the Tinker of Bedford. It has been established that John Bunyan was once arrested at Keysoe in what are known as Buryfields, an ideal place for a forbidden meeting.

It was from this village also that a less famous John Donne was taken to join John Bunyan in Bedford gaol. Like his famous namesake the poet, John Donne was a preacher, and he and Bunyan had preached in defiance of the Conventicle Act which forbade more than five people to come together for worship except in church, and one of the proud possessions of the Record Office in London is a list of 25 ministers for whom John Bunyan applied for permission to preach; John Donne is Number One.

The lonely hilltop church which was closed to John Donne looks northwards to a post-mill which has not ceased work for at least two centuries and is probably on the site of a 13th century mill. The present windmill was built in 1800 and was the last working post mill in Bedfordshire. In 1935 it was the only one where flour was still ground and dressed solely by wind power. The mill was blown down in a gale in 1947.

Until 1870 Keysoe was one of the few villages to have a school. This was the National School, named because it was maintained by the National Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, a Church of England organization. The building is one of the few of its kind still standing today. When education became compulsory in 1870, Keysoe school was built.

The non-conformist chapel at Brook End was built in 1741. In 1808, Joel Miles dissented from this chapel to form Keysoe Row Baptist chapel which still has the original hat pegs and oil lamps and is one of only two thatched chapels in Bedfordshire.

In North Bedfordshire, copies of pamphlets written by Annie Freeman can still be found but in 1910, the news of the Keysoe Miracle was on the lips of many Christians. Annie was a weakly child until 12 years of age when she grew stronger and went to work, but in 1887 was ill with pleurisy and rheumatic fever. After several spells in hospital, she lost the use of her legs, was bedridden and was visited by 24 doctors. In 1909, she had a vision and was assured of a recovery but not until 14th April 1910 when she heard a voice telling her to arise, did Annie get to her feet- fully recovered.

Another legend which may be true is that of a poor countryman called Matcham. During the time of the enclosures when life was hard for all but a few, Matcham was found guilty of sheep stealing and hanged from an elm tree, the stump of which can still be found at the corner of the field behind College Farm buildings. The story goes that if you approach this tree at twilight and say 'Matcham, Matcham, I've brought you some broth', a voice will be heard to reply, 'Cool it'!
This page last updated on the 16th of March 2005
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