BLETSOE, a parish in the district and county of Bedford; on the river Ouse, and on the Midland railway, 1½ mile SSE of Sharnbrook r. station, and 6 NNW of Bedford. It has a post office under Bedford. Acres, 2,239. Real property, £4,021. Pop., 412. Houses, 80. The property is all in one estate; and belonged once to the Pateshulls and the Beauchamps. An old castle, now a farmhouse, was the seat of the ancestors of Lord St. John of Bletsoe. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely. Value, £316.* Patron, Lord St. John. The church contains tombs of the St. John family and of Frances Countess of Bolingbroke. Charities, £13.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))