History of Sandy - Modern Times (1)
Much of the expansion of Sandy as we know it today, started in the 50's. Sandye Place was sold to Bedfordshire Education Committee in 1952, the Mansion House was restored and modern extensions built, and the site became Sandye Place Secondary Modern School in 1954.
The Great North Road became a dual carriageway, slicing Girtford and Beeston in two.
Girtford Manor was demolished in the mid-fifties, in order to accommodate a road-side cafe and petrol station, which
from the early eighties until 2007 was a Little Chef and Texaco service station. The Little Chef chain
was sold off by its owners in January 2007 and under new restructuring, the site
closed down and now forms part of a redeveloped Texaco Service station and
Somerfield supermarket/convenience store. The plans included closing off the entrance from the Sandy roundabout - the scene of many a near miss and accident over the years.
The crossroads at Girtford, once controlled by a complex set of traffic lights, was simplified at the end of the seventies, by a roundabout, and the A1 has been "improved".
In 1973, Sandy Urban District Council, entered into an agreement with the Greater London Council, to erect 700 dwellings on 34 acres of an area of land between Sunderland Road, and St Neot's Road, together with three new schools. (the dreaded London overspill scheme, which has blighted so many East Anglian towns).
(Picture above is of the Sandy roundabout on the southbound A1 viewed from the north side.
The former Little Chef on right by entrance to petrol station, Holiday Inn in the background. Picture on right is looking north from the south side. These photos date back to 2005 and is pre-redevelopment of the Little Chef/Texaco site.)
Three tier schooling was introduced in the seventies, Sandy Upper School and Robert Peel Lower School being built on the new estate, but the proposed middle school was transferred to Sandye Place. In recent times, with the development of 'Fallowfield', a new Lower School - Maple Tree', was opened on the new estate in September 2001, to accommodate children coming to live in the area.
Sandy Urban District Council disappeared in 1974, as part of local government re-organisation, to be replaced by Sandy Town Council
, with much reduced powers and responsibilities, housing being taken on by Mid Bedfordshire District Council.
Development has continued through the 80's and 90's, and where once there were parcels of land worked as market gardens, there are modern estates large and small. Even Bickerdike's Nursery succumbed to the developers in 1998/9.
With the GLC overspill development came the expansion of the industrial estates along Sunderland Road. Companies have come and gone, changed ownership etc.( Mid Beds District Council sold their ownership of the Middlefield Industrial Estate in January 2007), but today's make up is essentially light industrial units of small and medium sized enterprises, which provides a great deal of local employment.
(Picture is of entrance to Sandy Town Council's
extended offices in Cambridge Road)
Fallow Field has placed a further 900 homes in our midst, and the northern boundary road built to serve it (now also linking into Sunderland Road to offer access to industrial deliveries), will see further residential and industrial developments.
Modern Sandy is a mix of original housing stock, commuter-land estates and local industry in a still largely rural setting, the balance just about remaining right for its citizens. We still have two banks, a Post Office and enough variety of shops and local services to keep the quality of life at a sustainable level in the 21st Century. The recent 'Credit Crunch' issues in the summer and autumn of 2008 have started to affect the town, primarily with a slump in the housing market, with at least one local estate agent having closed their Sandy office because of it. How the town and its citizens fare though the next couple of years remains to be seen.
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