Is this an actual place- Doswell, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England?

Question

I know that Cranfield is a parish in Bedfordshire and often when I see a "city" listed it generally refers to a farm or area within the parish but this one is stumping me.

When you google "Doswell, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England" the only thing you get is Wheeler family trees that are referencing this place but no map pages showing where it is (I do get the map sources with all other farms and places I've searched for).

I've even read the history of Cranfield (https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/beds/vol3/pp275-279) and nothing for Doswell is mentioned there.

Anyone else familiar with this type of situation or could point me in the right direction to learn more?

Thanks!

Answer 1

If Cranfield is the parish then maybe Doswell is a house or a farm within that parish? Or it is a mispelt name of some other place within that parish.

Comments

Thank you. I found that Doswell is a surname. And the Cranfield Parish Register does list it under the place names that were referenced.

Would love to know more about the place and if it's a farm maybe who owned it, who worked there, is it still around, etc. Really helps to build a story and understand how the families were living at the time.

Answer 2

I contacted the local historical society about this, and this is the response I received back:

"At the west end of the village was the settlement of Wood End which was located at the junction of modern-day Court Road and Lodge Road including Bury Farm (now known as Home Farm), Wood End Road and Doeswell Lane (now the drive to The Kennels)."

The reason I had asked about it was because one of the parish records said ''of Doswell'' and we couldn't figure out what it meant. So, to answer your question, yes it was an actual place at the time. 

See page 67 and 100 for where it appears in the Cranfield Parish Register: https://archive.org/details/bedfordshirepari27bedf 

(Only goes back to 1600)

Comments

Thank you. That solves the riddle! Since it's not a city, we wouldn't really want to list that as a birth place or place of death, would we?

I see it on quite a few of my ancestor's records. I could clean it up to Cranfield, Bedfordshire and then list the reference to Doswell in the bio.

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Sounds like a plan. And, you're welcome.