About Fairfield Park

Fairfield Park the development:

Fairfield Park - a former 19th century grade II hospital building set in mature woodland - is being brought back to life in an imaginative project that will provide over 1000 homes and a range of community facilities.

The development - set on the Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire border - includes a broad mix of new-build and exclusive apartments in the converted hospital building - almost a third of a mile long - which provides a magnificent Victorian backdrop to the quintessentially English cricket ground and bowling green with its quaint pavilion.

Mature woodland, shrubs, plants and flowers grace the grounds which are criss crossed with a number of paths and cycleways. Fairfield Park has already been awarded Green Leaf Standard status for its commitment to preserving and enhancing the natural environment.

Each of the developers is committed to ensuring that their house designs sit comfortably within the local environment, with particular attention paid to creating attractive street scenes including curved terraces, varied roof levels and parking areas tucked away from view. An innovative and detailed design guide will ensure a consistency of detail - adding to the strong sense of community.

The whole area around Fairfield Park will benefit from over £4 million worth of additional investment including the building of a new lower school and education contributions totalling £2.2 million. As part of the project there will be a community centre, provision for a convenience store - providing this commercial opportunity is taken up, tennis courts and play areas - in addition to the upgrading of the cricket and bowls amenities.

© www.fairfield-park.co.uk 2006. Text from www.fairfield-park.co.uk

Fairfield Park history:

The Original building known as the Bedford Asylum was erected by an Act of Parliament in 1812 and was a handsome brick building on Ampthill Road, Bedford. The Asylum cost £13,000 to build and could accommodate 65 inmates.
 
The 1845 Act for the Regulation, Care and Treatment of Lunatics made it compulsory for each County to provide an Asylum for the care of its pauper lunatics, and so in 1846 it became The Three Counties Asylum catering for the counties of Bedford, Hertford and Huntingdon.
 
As admissions to the Asylum increased, so did the calls for a larger building or extensions to the present building. Matters became far worse following the 1853 Act which banned the use of all restraining devices for lunatics in Workhouses. leading to a sharp increase in the number of lunatics transferred from Workhouses into Asylums.
 
Pressure for increased accommodation mounted on the Three Counties Asylum, eventually leading to a move in premises in 1860. The new Asylum buildings were located in Stotfold, Bedfordshire and became known as Arlesey Three Counties Asylum. The grounds consisted of 253 acres of which 230 acres were cultivated, and the Asylum was an extensive and elegant yellow brick building standing upon ground 222 above sea level. Extensive views of the surrounding country could be seen from this picturesque landmark.
 
Treatment of the inmates consisted primarily of good, clean fresh air, regulated diet and daily work, usually within the Asylum building consisting of laundry or cleaning, and outside work on the farm, where produce for the Asylum kitchen was grown.
 
Further extensions were made to the buildings, and a Chapel was erected for the inmates in 1879. By 1894 the Asylum could accommodate 1,000 inmates who were under the care of Edward Swain, Medical Superintendent ably assisted by Miss Teresa H. Tweddle, Matron and Farm Bailiff Henry W. Brown. The Chapel East stained window was erected in 1920 by the Staff and inmates as a memorial to those connected with the Asylum who gave their lives in the Great War (1914-1918).
 
Social Policy led to increasing improvements in the care of Mental Health, and the 1930 Mental Treatment Act changed the use of the term Asylum to Hospital, when Arlesey became known as The Three Counties Hospital.
 
By 1936 the grounds consisted of 410 acres, of which 385 acres were cultivated, and the Hospital could accommodate 1,100 patients under the care of Doctor N. McDiarmid, Medical Superintendent, Miss E. M. Field the Chief Female Officer and T. Hartles, Farm Bailiff.
 
The Hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948, and was renamed Fairfield Hospital in 1960. The Government published “Care in the Community” in 1981 leading to a great change in the provision of care for patients with Mental Health problems, and ultimately leading to the closure of large psychiatric Hospitals. Fairfield Hospital was closed in 1999, and the site has been sold for Housing redevelopment.
 
© Rossbret 2001. Text from Rossbret Institutions Website: http://www.institutions.org.uk
 
Interesting fact about Fairfield Park:

An Early to Middle Iron Age enclosed ridge-top village found at Fairfield Park

General view of the site

Excavations at Fairfield Park, the grounds of a former Victorian country hospital located adjacent to the Bedfordshire / Hertfordshire border, have revealed the remains of a significant Iron Age hill village which dates back to around 800BC. The investigations were carried out by Oxford Archaeology on behalf of Fairfield Re-developments Limited, a joint venture between Wiggins and Galliford Try plc.

The archaeological site gradually emerged as the staged residential development of the 27.6 hectare estate got underway. Trial trenching of the site in the mid 1990s had suggested the presence of a Roman settlement, so it was quite a surprise to reveal a substantial site of greater antiquity.

The investigations began in October 2002 and were completed thirteen months later, by which time Oxford Archaeology had excavated almost 3 hectares of the estate, revealing extensive and dense remains of the ancient village.

Throughout the excavated areas were found the diverse echoes of early Iron Age life, the by-products of a great many generations of occupation. Largely, the remains reflect the more material aspects of life such as roundhouses and post-built sheds, storage pits, animal pens and plots of land that were separated by ditches and hedges. The finds too reveal the diversity of domestic life - cooking, hunting, food processing, textile production, and animal husbandry (see photographs of finds below).

But this period of ancient Britain still holds many mysteries for the archaeologist and not all features at Fairfield could be ascribed to practical purposes. What of the curious alignment of pits which appeared to weave between houses? Remarkably similar in dimension and at fairly regularly-spaced intervals; too wide for post-settings, too shallow for storage. Some of these were clay-lined. Two were found to contain skeletons of young children, almost foetal in posture. A hint of ritual behaviour, perhaps?

Over the last two decades, archaeologists have been very sceptical of the use of ‘ritual’ as a means of understanding features and deposits that cannot be explained in earthly or practical terms, and certainly there appears to have been an ’overkill’ in the use of the word. Archaeologists, however, are increasingly noting artefacts or bones that have been deliberately and selectively placed within certain dug features. Such discoveries, referred to as ‘structured’ deposits, are believed to have been associated with long forgotten beliefs. With Oxford Archaeology’s team constantly alert to the recognition of these special finds the settlement at Fairfield Park proved to be no exception.

Significantly, amongst these structured deposits were the fragments of five rotary querns, originally used to grind corn, which were positioned in the middle of the entranceway to a round house. ‘Deliberate placement‘ seems a careful alternative to ‘ritual’, but nevertheless such occurrences deserve explanation. Indeed, the interest in the deliberate deposition of material culture has been steadily growing over the last decade, although the study of how rotary querns fit into this pattern is relatively under-developed. The discovery of rotary quern fragments from closely dated early to middle Iron Age contexts in Britain is also highly unusual; the Fairfield querns are believed to date from the 4th century BC. The rotary quern is generally believed to have been introduced to Britain during the middle Iron Age but the transition from saddle to rotary querns was lengthy and the changeover varied regionally.

Other finds included a large assemblage of rather uncommon decorated pottery, occasional items of jewellery, and a large quantity of weaving implements.

A topographical survey has been undertaken of the entire ridge-top development site extending well beyond its limits in order to assist a proposed GIS approach to the interpretation of the site and its setting within the ancient landscape. The discoveries are probably only a small part of an ancient settlement that had formerly sprawled along a low ridge, dominating the local landscape. Indeed the evidence strongly suggests that it was once surrounded by a double ditch and rampart. Oxford Archaeology’s excavations were situated north and south of the old hospital complex and it is presumed that the Iron Age settlement extended across the entire site. If this was indeed the case then the village may have had upwards of 40 roundhouses at any one time – perhaps the base for a group of extended families, or a clan, forming a substantial element of the regional tribal community.

Computer experts at Oxford Archaeology plan to use the excavation evidence to reconstruct the appearance of the Iron Age village. Once the analysis of the finds is complete, the artefacts will be placed in Bedford Museum.

“Although it was part of the planning agreement to enable this archaeological survey, we are delighted that it has produced such a fascinating conclusion. It simply adds to the historical story of the land,” said Fairfield Re-developments Ltd Project Director Peter Sutton.

The new development, one of the largest in the area, will also provide a new school and a range of community facilities, including the conversion of the former Victorian hospital into exclusive apartments.

Finds from Fairfield Park

 Archers' wrist guard

  Bone spindle whorl

 Bone ring

 Jet finger ring

 Decorative potters' stamp

 Fragment of quern stone used for grinding corn

 Decorated Iron Age pot rim

                                  Sheep bone with wear marks indicating use for weaving

Ó Oxford Archaeology. This article has been used with the kind permission of Oxford Archaeology. For more information about Oxford Archaeology visit: thehumanjourney.net