Hogs Lane
Hogs Lane. Home of Joseph Bell. Watercolour by John Higgins © J. Longuet Higgins
Where the Turvey House Lodge now stands was once the entrance to Hogs Lane which had cottages to the left as can be seen in the John Higgins painting. A resident of the little cottage to the left of the picture was Joseph Bell of whom play has been written.
Turvey’s Workhouse once stood at the bottom of Hog’s Lane. There is recorded evidence of a Workhouse in Turvey in 1723. It closed in 1834 following the Poor Law Amendment Act. Its inmates were transferred to the Bedford Union Workhouse. The building was then demolished.
The original entrance to Turvey House was through gates opposite Ye Three Fyshes. Between 1818 and 1830, a farmhouse (which would have been situated near the entrance to Chantry House) was demolished to make way for a coach drive to Turvey House. The present Turvey House Lodge and the current drive to the House were created around 1848 when all of this area was redeveloped.
Three Cranes
The Chequers Public House 1818. Watercolour by John Higgins © J. Longuet Higgins
The Chequers Public House 1841. Watercolour by Bradford Rudge © Bedford Higgins Museum.
On the site where The Three Cranes now stands was a public house, known originally as The Chequers, built in 1649. It was demolished and rebuilt, probably recycling much of the material, at the same time as other redevelopments in this area. It was renamed the Three Cranes after the Higgins Coat of Arms which featured the heads of three Cranes. The pub sign bore the same coat of arms at this time.
The above paintings provide varied images of the scene between 1818 and 1841. The cottages were in a very poor state and demolished together with those in Hogs Lane in the redevelopment of the 1850’s spurred on, no doubt by an outbreak of Cholera in the village in the 1840’s.
Three Cranes
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