WARDEN (OLD), a parish in the hundred of WIXAMTREE, county of BEDFORD, 3¾ miles (W. by S.) from Biggleswade, containing 670 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, united with that of Southill, in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Lincoln, endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty. The church is dedicated to St. Leonard: in the cemetery is the mausoleum of Lord Ongley. A market and fair, granted in 1218, were formerly held, but both have been long disused. An abbey for Cistercian monks from Rivaulx was founded here, in 1135, by Walter L'Espec : it was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and at the dissolution had a revenue of £442.11.11.

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