ASPECTS OF BEDFORDSHIRE LIFE


BUONGIORNO BEDFORD The birth of ‘Little Italy’.


The mid-twentieth century saw an influx of Italians to Bedford, migrating here to work.


Through the years that followed, they became an integral part of Bedford's identity and life. And their story is in some ways also the story of the area's brick-making heritage.


by Isobel Murdoch


O


ver the years, different parts of England have attracted scattered pockets of Italians. As in Bedford, they have tended to settle in


areas with some particular local industry and employment, like the Somerset town of Street, known as the home of Clarks shoes, to which workers migrated from Italy at one time. And, like many countries, Italy has a far wider diaspora all over the world. Some left seeking wealth, others simply wanting a new way of life and to see the world or to rebuild their futures far away from the memories of war and conflict or earlier political unrest. Italy has a troubled and eventful history. Long divided as separate city states, the whole country was only unified during the late nineteenth century. For Bedford, it all began during the post-war era,


particularly at the start of the 1950s. With the drive to rebuild a recovering nation, Bedfordshire’s many brickworks were busier than ever, becoming more and more successful. And they all needed workers. But it was a struggle to find and recruit local men at a time when there were so many other openings and opportunities. Britain’s economy was on a strong upward trend, and brickworks failed to attract the workforce they needed. The solution? Invite migrant workers from overseas. It is easy to forget the scale of Bedfordshire’s


brick-making industry at this time. And it was all dependent on clay. Clay is classed as a sediment (a solid, suspended material) formed of particles under 4 microns in diameter. England’s diverse geology is complex, but clay outcrops across the country were formed hundreds of millions of years


10 6 County Life


ago. Some 360 million years ago, the Carboniferous period was a time of lush swampy growth, shifting to extreme drought. Then came the warmer seas and floods of the Jurassic period, when clay was deposited wherever the waters were deeper. Millions of years later, these clay deposits were to prove lucrative for Bedfordshire. To either side of the Greensand Ridge run clay vales: one being the Vale of Bedford, which extends to the northern edge of the 650 square miles of the Chilterns. Extracting the Oxford clay, as it is known, to make bricks, became a growth industry. To the south-west of Bedford and across to Bletchley and the Buckinghamshire border, there were well over a hundred brick kilns at one time They were a striking sight in the landscape with their tall chimneys, built to heat the kilns to the very high temperatures required. And the most successful was at Stewartby. This was once the village of Wootton Pillinge,


near Wootton Green and Wootton itself. But, as the brickworks expanded, it came to overshadow the village, and the new ‘model’ village that was created here was renamed to commemorate the new owner, Sir Halley Stewart. Although conditions could be difficult or primitive, and many workers were exploited as industry grew, there were some more enlightened owners and industrialists, and they strove to improve conditions and to spare some thought for welfare. Sir Halley Stewart was one of these. He built new houses and leisure facilities as well as a school for the workers’ children. The company went on growing and was


eventually sold to the London Brick Company. At continued on page 18 www.countylifemagazines.co.uk


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