Preface and acknowledgements

Summary

First, I must apologise to subscribers who expected this volume to appear in 1997. Owing to pressure of work I was unable to produce the text in time, but thanks to the backing of the County Council I was given time to complete the project. I am especially grateful for this privilege, and for the support of my colleagues who ably looked after the Record Office and considerately protected me from interruptions while I was working on this book.

Thanks are due to the authorities and owners who have allowed the publication of their material. The 1822 glebe terriers are published here by kind permission of Lincoln Diocesan Record Office. Archdeacon Bonney's church notes were among the manuscripts transferred to the County Record Office from the old Bedford Library, while Bonney's visitation notes appear by kind permission of the present Archdeacon of Bedford, the Ven. Malcolm Lesiter. Sir Stephen Glynne's Bedfordshire church notes are published by kind permission of Sir William Gladstone. Thanks are also due to Geoffrey Veysey for providing information on the notes and for allowing me to quote from his article about Sir Stephen Glynne. The sources of illustrations are acknowledged separately.

Material for this volume has been gathered from several record repositories and institutions. My first debt of gratitude is to my colleagues in the Bedfordshire Record Office, but I must also thank the staff at the British Library, the British Newspaper Library, the library of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Bedfordshire County Library Service, Lambeth Palace Library, Cambridge University Library, Lincolnshire Archives, and the Hertfordshire County Record Office for their help and advice.

Although acknowledged in the first part, special thanks are due to Pauline Newbery who typed most of the text of the original sources and to Neil Alston who prepared the initial selection of illustrations. To these names must be added that of Jackie Croot who has worked carefully through the newspaper files extracting useful references to churches and chapels. Her work has added enormously to the available information, making it possible to solve many problems of interpretation for which answers would otherwise have been impossible to find.

I owe a great deal to the support and contributions of people who have accompanied me on my visits and to the many local experts who have made their knowledge of individual churches available to me and commented on the draft text.