Harrold in 1835

Harrold, anciently Harwolde or Harwood or Harles-wood. This small town is not upon any main road, its distance from London cannot, therefore, be accurately given, but it is about 9 miles NW of Bedford. Its market, which is on Thursday, is little more than nominal, and the only branch of manufacture carried on in the place is that of lace. There is a bridge over the Ouse with a long causeway. The parish church is adorned with a handsome Gothic spire. The living is a vicarage in the gift of the Earl de Grey. Harrold had once a small priory, built in the reign of Stephen, first both for canons and nuns of the order of St. Nicholas of Arrouasia, but afterwards it consisted only of a prioress, and three or four nuns of the order of St. Augustin. At the Dissolution its total income was £471, 3 shillings, 2 pence, its yearly income £40, 18 shillings, 2 pence. The site was granted in 1544 to William Lord Parr. The priory is now a farm-house, the property of Earl de Grey. The only part of the conventual buildings which remains is the refectory, now a barn called the Hall Barn.