Kensworth Parish Records, Bedfordshire

<span class="wrapper"><p>Inclosure Awards</p> <p>[MA98/1 "A Plan of the Parish of Kensworth in the County of Hertford as divided and allotted under an Act of Parliament passed in the year 1798". Inclosure map of the whole parish. Scale 13.3" to one mile. Ink and watercolour on two parchment membranes, 55" x 26.3". Signed by John Fellowes and Th. Brown, Commissioners. 1798</p> <p>[Award dated 6 January 1801]</p> <p>Corn rents</p> <p>See P34/3/10 for Quarter Sessions instrument fixing corn rents, 1920</p></span>

Note Historically, the ancient parish of Kensworth was in the County of Hertford, Dacorum Hundred. However, from 1834 it was included in the Luton Poor Law Union, and from 1863 Kensworth was in Luton Highway District. These precedents led to the eventual transfer of the parish from Hertfordshire to Bedfordshire in 1897 under s.54 of the "Local Government Act, 1888", the actual instrument of transfer being dated 30 September 1897. It should also be noted that from 1894 to 1897 Kensworth was in the short-lived Markyate Rural District, and from 1897 it was in Luton Rural District.

The history of the ecclesiastical parish is no less complicated than that of the Civil parish. Kensworth was in Lincoln Diocese (Berkhampstead Deanery of the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon) until 1845. In 1845 the Deanery was transferred to the Diocese of Rochester, and from 1845-1863 Kensworth (and Berkhampstead Deanery) was in St. Albans Archdeaconry, and from 1863-1877 in the Archdeaconry of Rochester and St. Albans. On the foundation of the Diocese of St. Albans in 1877, Kensworth again came under the jurisdiction of a new Diocese. From 1877 to 1907 Kensworth was in Berkhampstead Deanery of the Diocese of St. Albans, from 1907 to 1930 in the St. Albans Deanery, and from 1930 to date (1983) in Dunstable Deanery.