Harpur - History

History

The area is named after Sir William Harpur a famous Bedfordian. The area houses Bedford Modern School which is part of the Harpur Trust. Bedford High School was located in the area until its closure in 2012.

A notorious Highwayman labelled 'Black Tom' reportedly frequented the area in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Supposedly he was buried with a stake driven through his heart at the junction of Tavistock Street, Union Street and Clapham Road. Today Black Tom is the informal name of the Tavistock Street neighbourhood in Harpur.

Most of Harpur has been developed for over two hundred years, and most buildings in the area date from the 19th Century or before. However the northern part of the area (Manton Heights) was developed much later, in the 1970s.

The Bedford Physical Training College (later, Bedford College of Physical Education) was founded on Landsdowne Road in 1903. The campus joined two others in 1976 to form Bedford College of Higher Education which in turn joined other colleges to form De Montfort University in 1994. By this time many of the buildings on or around Lansdowne Road in Harpur were part of the university campus. In 2006 the Bedford arm of De Montfort University and the University of Luton formed the University of Bedfordshire. It was decided that the new University would merge its two Bedford campuses onto one site on Polhill Avenue, De Parys. This meant the end of the Lansdowne Road campus, which lasted in the Harpur area for over 100 years. In July 2009, plans to develop the old university site into housing were rejected by Bedford Borough Council, the local planning authority.

John Le Mesurier who starred as Sergeant Arthur Wilson on the popular 1970s BBC comedy Dad's Army was born in Chaucer Road in the area in 1912.