Arlesey

[From Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831.]

ARLSEY, a parish in the hundred of CLIFTON, county of BEDFORD, 4¾ miles (N. W. by W.) from Baldock, containing 562 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, to which the rectory of Astwick was united in 1764, in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £8, and in the patronage of R. Houston, Esq. The church is dedicated to St. Peter. This place is recorded in Domesday-book as a market town, and its market, in 1270, was confirmed to Stephen Edworth, then lord of the manor, to be held on Wednesday, with a fair on the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, both of which have been long discontinued. At Etonbury, near the road to Baldock, is an ancient entrenchment, the site of the castle of the manor.