Its geographical and territorial position has proved pivotal to Biggleswade’s development as a town and its sense of identity. From the early Roman road, linking Baldock with Godmanchester, transport has been key and in the 1700’s the Great North Road from Edinburgh to London came through the town. Biggleswade owed much of its early prosperity to highway coach trade and the town became a staging post of inns, which allowed travellers to rest while coach horses were changed on long journeys.
The creation of a navigable route on the river through Biggleswade in 1758 offered greater trade and transport links and three wharfs were built to allow the carrying of local agricultural produce, coal and timber. River trade continued to flourish until the 1876 when the Ivel Navigation Trust, who opened that stretch of the river, went into liquidation.
The opening of the Great Northern Railway, which linked London with York and Scotland in 1850 gave the growing local market gardening industry access to the bustling London markets, such as Covent Garden, with fresh vegetables flowing from the town, while Biggleswade received horse manure, sent by rail from London stables to enrich the sandy soil.
Biggleswade’s agricultural links are still strong to this day, with many arable farmers working the local land, including NFU President Peter Kendall, while the Jordan family have been producing their world famous cereal products in the town for well over 150 years. The conversion of local barley to malt also proved a vital ingredient in Bedfordshire’s brewing industry, and Samuel Wells established his Biggleswade brewery in 1764, which later became the Greene King brewery in 1961, prior to its closure in 1997.
The Morton and Kinman owned Vulcan Foundry off Foundry Lane and Saffron Road made the iron work for the Ivel Navigation bridges at Blunham, Mill Lane and Holme in 1823.
From 1862, coachbuilder Maythorn had a factory on Market Square/Station Road. New premises were built in 1925.
After the firm’s demise in 1931, the factory and offices were utilised by NURO to make photographic film from 1935 to 1938; the NAAFI as a warehouse from 1940 to 1958 and Delaney Gallay and Gloster Saro, to make heat-insulation materials for aircraft, including Concorde. The building was demolished in 1987 to make way for shops and a car park.
The Ivel Cycle Works in Shortmead Street, founded by Dan Albone in 1881, made bicycles, motorbikes and light tractors until 1922.
Holme Mills, listed in the Domesday Book has been the home of Jordans Cereals since 1893. The company also has a unit on Stratton Business Park.
Franklin’s Mill in Mill Lane closed in 1945 following a fire. The mill building was restored and used as a warehouse before being converted into flats in 1982. Bedfordshire’s tallest windmill, at 70 ft (21m), stood in Hitchin Street from 1858 until 1967.
