TITLE DEEDS TO BEDFORD BUS STATION AT GREYFRIARS

CONTENTS

Three location maps 1807, 1841 & 1957

Introduction

Plan copied from abstract forming root of title 1836

Green Dragon/Prince of Wales public house, 1836-1897 Z 965/1

37 Gwyn Street, 1836-1936 Z 965/2

39 & 41 Gwyn Street, 1836-1936 Z 965/3

41 Gwyn Street, 1836-1957 Z 965/4

43 Gwyn Street, 1836-1957 Z 965/5

45 Gwyn Street, 1836-1954 Z 965/6

47 & 49 Gwyn Street, 1836-1957 Z 965/7

51 Gwyn Street, 1836-1954 Z 965/8

53 Gwyn Street, 1836-1954 Z 965/9

55 Gwyn Street, 1836-1953 Z 965/10

Mission Hall/20 Greenhill, 1904-1952 Z 965/11

Alma Cottage, 2 Little Thurloe Street, 1836-1940 Z 965/12

4 & 6 Little Thurloe Street, 1836-1954 Z 965/13

1 & 3 Little Thurloe Street, (1836-)1957 Z 965/14

5, 7, 9,& 11 Little Thurloe Street, 1836-1956 Z 965/15

13 & 15 Little Thurloe Street, 1836-1957 Z 965/16

Exchange of land with bus company, 1957 Z 965/17

Requisitions on title of all property, 1958 Z 965/18

Licence to sublet at bus station, 1971 Z 965/19

<span class="wrapper"><p>A map showing the whole of the Hassetts estate bought by the Elger family in 1836 can be seen at ref. X 868/2. Title to all the properties in this collection of deeds derives from the first Abstract of Title listed (Z 965/1/1) (duplicated at WL 699).</p> <p>Ealier title deeds dating from 1709 can be found at X 876 &amp; 878; deeds relating to the Trustees and release of rents 1861-1906 are at X 877. Deeds to adjacent land from 1728 can be found at AD 3974, ST 1583 and Z 948/1. The ST reference includes Counsel's Advice on Title of Thomas Gwyn Elger dated 1825.</p></span>

Acc 7913

Deposited by Dibb Luton Alsop, solicitors

In the listing, information added to a deed in square brackets has generally been extracted from documents which have been weeded out. Such details are mainly addresses, occupations and occasionally family relationships of parties. It should be possible to confirm all such bracketed detail from other sources.

Hassetts Close, All hallows Close or Chappwell Close, and the Dragon or Green Dragon, Bedford - later known as Thurloe Street and Gwyn Street

These are the deeds to the properties which existed before the bus station at Greyfriars, off Greenhill Street in Bedford, was built. The creation of a new bus station formed part of the County Development Plan for Bedfordshire, initiated in the early 1950s. Once the Development Plan was signed and sealed, the County Council immediately set about acquiring all the properties on the site and, by 1957, the plot was cleared and given to the United Counties Omnibus Co Ltd in exchange for the then existing bus station site in Broadway.

The land on which the new bus station was built was once part of an estate owned by the Thurloe Brace family. It included an ancient mansion house called Hassetts and a building called the Dragon or Green Dragon which, with its surrounding orchard and garden, stood opposite the County Jail in St Loyes Street. The estate was sold in the early 1800s to the Elger brothers, a Bedford family of suveyors, merchants and developers, who divided the land into smaller plots and sold these plots off individually. Every plot was then built on, usually by a local builder, and the plot plus its new house or houses was then sold on. Where builders had bought more than one plot, these were usually sold separately once houses had been erected.

On one plot at the corner of Thurloe Street and Gwyn Street was a pub apparently called, confusingly, the Dragon or Green Dragon but which by 1869 was known as The Prince of Wales. This is not the building of the same name which had stood opposite the Jail in the early 1800s.