Talk:Biggleswade

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Article quality reassessment[edit]

I've taken the liberty to upgrade the article to C class from Start as its obviously better than Start. I think this is still conservative and maybe it's up to B class. --Rupples (talk) 13:29, 31 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Notable residents list[edit]

Some of the entries on the list seem not to belong as the person is not notable in relation to Biggleswade.

First to be considered for the chop, Wally Odell. He was a professional footballer and played 61 times for Wrexham in Division 3 North in the 1930s and so meets Wikipedia's footballer notability guideline and has a Wiki page. I can find no mention of him being celebrated in Biggleswade.

Second candidate for removal is John Manton. No entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His Wikipedia page describes him as an Australian Methodist minister, school principal and founding President of Newington College, Sydney. Don't know for sure but unless Newington College is a renowned/famous school I don't think Manton is notable.

Any comments?

--Rupples (talk) 17:51, 9 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I think the notability and the connection to Biggleswade should be on anyone's page. Otherwise we need a ref to say he was born n B or whatever. So I agree about Odell. Manton was born in B and does sound to me interesting enough to Australian religious history. Horton College was an important school by the sound of it. Only two women so far – not many. Bmcln1 (talk) 19:39, 9 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed (draft) revamp of Industry section under History[edit]

Businesses and goods made in Biggleswade over the years[edit]

Years in operation Business name Goods produced Location What’s on the site now


1801-current Jordan's Flour, animal feeds, breakfast cereals, cereal bars Holme Mill Still in use
1883-1945 Franklin's Flour, animal feeds Mill Lane Used as a warehouse after 1945, the mill was converted into apartments in 1982.
1949- early 1970s Felix Catfood Dry cat food Potton Road Housing, Mountbatten Drive

I am considering changing the existing text to a tabular format as above (incomplete) and would welcome any comments before proceeding further. Rupples (talk) 06:19, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Big T! I'm not a great tables fan myself, finding text, photographs and lists easier to absorb, but plenty of editors would disagree. Certainly tables are useful if there is a lot of numerical information to compare, as with the weather/climate. Tables make it relatively more difficult for newcomers to Wikipedia to add information.

I feel myself that the important message is that Biggleswade is becoming less industrialized, perhaps a market town to a similar extent that it was, and still becoming to an increasing extent a dormitory town for the London area. So transport links and road congestion are important, where you can find sources. It may or may not mean naming factories of yore – perhaps a couple of major ones is enough.

That structural process of change and an increasing number of migrants to do the ill-paid jobs will probably mean that the age spread of the population is changing. Are schools expanding? Do they have a programme to assist non-English children? Sometimes it's enough to give a citation to more detailed info.

It's worth considering that a Wikipedia page is not an account of what Biggleswade town or its people would like us to know – let the local government and churches and societies do that – but of what people reading the page would like to know. Remember that editors have no opinions of their own.

Well, who wants to know what about Biggleswade? Perhaps schoolchildren doing a project, perhaps people studying an aspect of Bedfordshire, perhaps people interested to see how it compares with their town, perhaps in relation to transport links, perhaps readers of Pepys even! They changed coaches there on the way to Hunts. Lots of different people, in fact.

For most of them, it helps if the page is concise, so it's worth chipping away at the text, not just adding more detail but ensuring that it has relatively wide relevance. These are my personal views and priorities, and like most editors, you will have similar and different ones alike. I've been watching the page develop with great interest, as you know, although I haven't knowingly been to Biggleswade since the early 1960s, unless watching a few roofs go by from the train counts! With best wishes, Brian Bmcln1 (talk) 11:19, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

After due consideration I've decided not to proceed with this format. --Rupples (talk) 17:33, 9 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Transport[edit]

Below is the text under the Transport heading.

The Great Northern Railway opened in 1850, and Biggleswade was for a time the first and only town in Bedfordshire to have a mainline station. Later it was one of three towns in the county to have one (on the East Coast Main Line), along with Bedford and Dunstable.

Despite a good deal of searching I can find no online published source supporting these statements. Can anyone provide references? I have changed the text to simply read The Great Northern Railway opened a station in 1850. Sandy and Arlsey & Shefford Road stations also opened in August 1950 per references on their Wikipedia pages.

The town was bypassed by the A1 trunk road in 1961.[6]

Buses in the town were provided by Eastern National until 1952, when the western division of Eastern National was handed over to United Counties. The company had a garage in Shortmead Street opposite Ivel Gardens until 1989 when it was sold for redevelopment into flats. United Counties was acquired by Stagecoach in November 1987 and moved to the current site in Hitchin Street in 1989, which was acquired from Charles Cook. Other bus operators based in Biggleswade included Charles Cook European Travel who operated in the area between 1947 and 1998 and Fairway Coaches although both of these operators have ceased to operate.

Similarly, I was unable to find evidence to support the statements about bus companies. Any help would be appreciated. --Rupples (talk) 07:01, 23 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Town Council website supports the 'first mainline station in Bedfordshire' claim here: https://biggleswadetowncouncil.gov.uk/biggleswade-station/ Andywebby (talk) 10:44, 3 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. Could be true as Biggleswade is a town and Langford and Arlesey stations which opened in the same year serve villages. Also Bedford St Johns railway station, which opened 4 years earlier was probably not classed as on a main line. Rupples (talk) 21:56, 3 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Comments[edit]

Removed reference to "Mark Gray, world-famous super hero" as this is possibly a lie.

Removed links to non-notable churches, football clubs, and a photography competition which are not mentioned in the body of the entry. Left links to history society. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.6.42.192 (talk) 18:15, 4 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Removed "Shailesh Patel, local multi-millionaire business man, property entrepreneur", as he seems to be unknown to google except for via local websites that can be edited by the public. Seems an odd hobby for a multimillionaire property entrepreneur, but I'm not one to judge. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.6.42.192 (talk) 12:45, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Removed list of churches from cultural section, as although there are six churches, there are also several religious groups left out of the list, including the large population of Plymouth Brethren. The list did not link to any WP pages on the churches themselves, as they are non-notable - except, perhaps, for St Andrews, which has a famous dog-lover buried in it's grounds. However, perhaps this might be best dealt with on the dog-lovers entry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.16.213.196 (talk) 00:23, 3 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Entry for Biggleswade Needs Cleanup[edit]

This page was - until fairly recently - a concise listing of relevant information about a small market town. Now it's a page choc full of useless information. Here are some examples:

  1. Transport history?! The section on transport history can be removed, as it is non-notable.
  2. Sports and leisure can be mostly removed. A small town having various clubs and such is non-notable, unless connected to a famous person.
  3. Culture - the fact that a town is mentioned by Pepys does not make it worth having a 'culture' section.
  4. List of schools - massively non-notable.

There are also several sections where non-wikipedian language is used, such as saying the area is 'well served' by transport routes in the introduction. Other sections are unclear - saying the town was the 'first and only' to have a train station is not logical. If it was the first, it was by definition the only. Perhaps some kind wikipedia with sense will see to correct these issues. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.16.213.196 (talk) 17:13, 7 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Biggleswade as 'the first and only' station (in Beds) is incorrect as Bedford St Johns precedes (1846). However, it is claimed (on the Town Council's web page) to be the first mainline station in Bedfordshire. Is this enough to also claim notability? Andywebby (talk) 10:49, 3 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Light Industrial town[edit]

Part of this article states that "Traditionally Biggleswade was a vegetable- and produce growing area..." And then follows this with an advert for Bedfordshire Growers. In fact for most of it's recent history, the biggest employers in the town have been industrial. It is only since the Thatcher Revolution, when actual industry was deemed to be less important than the service industries, that the factories have disappeared. Cincinatti Milacron, Gloster Saro, Maythorns, Ivel Cycles, Insumat, Green King, Berkeley, Kayser Bondor etc. etc. Cincinatti Milacron once had a factory that covered about 20% of the current area of the town. Unless anyone objects, I'm going to rewrite this bit to show a bit more balance (and get rid of the advert).Plingsby (talk) 10:32, 26 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Weirdly, Bedfordshire Growers (founded in 1963) are also one of the biggest co-operatives in the UK. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.5.244.24 (talk) 00:37, 26 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If you (or anyone) has citeable/supportable evidence for this, can you tell me. I don't really want to get rid of the Bedfordshire growers advert per se, I'd just prefer it to be useful information (which obviously it can be with proper verification).Plingsby (talk) 08:00, 26 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified (January 2018)[edit]

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Town Council v. District Council[edit]

I don't see the point in discussing this here in any detail because the rules are legislative. They apply to all English town councils and district councils, so that the exact terms belong on the general pages about local government and don't need repeating for each town. I feel that most of this detail should come out. Perhaps look at some other town pages to see they manage it. Bmcln1 (talk) 18:15, 12 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Brian, I apologise for the "vague and unnecessary" comment I made in my edit narrative. I now realise that if the comment had been directed towards one of my edits I would have been pretty P***** off - so sorry for any offence. Wish I could remove it. I think that I originally included the lists of responsibilities because I wasn't at the time aware of the differences between those of a Town council and a Unitary authority. I live in a metropolitan borough which I'm pretty sure carries out all local authority functions. I have been using the wikipage for Altrincham as guidance as it is a Featured Article. Its Governance section briefly lists functions for Trafford Council. I've now checked other Featured Article pages for UK places - there aren't that many. The Chew Stoke page lists some of the responsibilities for the parish and unitary authority. Keswick doesn't. So I guess there's no unanimous agreement!

Best wishes, Terry Rupples (talk) 20:44, 12 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Terry, no need to apologize. Anyway, I see you're checking around, that's the main thing. What do you think of Bingham, Nottinghamshire not having anything on Governance at all, apart from its belonging to Rushcliffe Borough? Woodbridge, Suffolk, another page I fiddle with, has a very short Governance section. Is it enough? Southwold, Suffolk has a tad more and has seen recent local-government changes. Omitting its exact tasks as a third-tier LGA does mean relying on quite a number of links, though. Best, Brian Bmcln1 (talk) 21:22, 12 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Brian, Your questions have started me doing a little research into the Governance section and I'll reply on your talk page when completed. Rupples (talk) 14:28, 13 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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