Melchbourne is a village and parish, about 4½ miles north from Sharnbrook station on the main line of the Midland railway, 5¼ south-east from Higham Ferrers, 6 south-west from Kimbolton, and 12 north from Bedford, in the Northern division of the county, hundred of Stodden, Sharnbrook petty sessional disivision court district and union of Bedford, rural deanery of Riseley, Bedford archdeaconry and St. Albans diocese. The church of St. Mary Magdalene, re-erected (with the exception of part of the tower) in 1779, on the site of an earlier Gothic church, is an edifice in the Classic style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, north porch and an embattled western tower containing 4 bells, re-hung in 1891, and a clock presented in 1911 in memory of the late Lady St. John of Bletso, wife of the 16th baron: the organ was presented by Louisa Lady St. John, in 1858: there are two monuments to Col. the Hon. George St. John, Lavinia (VVolstenholme), his wife and four children, who were all drowned on their passage from Bombay, in 1802; and to Henry Beauchamp, baron St. John of Bletso, 1805; and brasses to Robert Paveley and Johanna, his wife, dated 1577; St. Andrew Beauchamp, 14th baron, d. 27th Jan. 1874, and to his widow Eleanor (Hussey), d 28th . Nov. 1899; St. Andrew, 15th baron St. John, d. 2nd Nov. 1887; to Ellen Georgiana (Senior), his wife, d. 1890, and to Beauchamp Moubray, 16th baron St. John, d. May 10th, 1912, and to Helen Charlotte (Thornton), his wife, d. March 23rd, 1909: there is also a memorial window to Mary Evelyn Maitland (Senior), d. 20th Aug. 1902: the pulpit is of fine polished mahogany: there are sittings for 400 persons. The register dates from the year 1706. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £70, with 27 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of Lord St. John, and held since 1907 by the Rev. George Alfred Crawshaw M.A. of Exeter College, Oxford. This place had formerly a market on Fridays and a fair at the festival of St. Mary Magdalene, granted in the year 1264 to the Knights Hospitallers. In a field, adjoining the park on the north, are the remains of an ancient preceptor of the Knights Hospitallers, to whom the manor and church were given, temp. Henry I by Alice de Claremont, Countess of Pembroke, and confirmed to them on the re-founding of the order, 4 and 5 Philip and Mary (1557-8); in 3 Edward VI (1549) these were granted to John, Earl of Bedford, but were given by Queen Elizabeth to Francis, second Earl of Bedford, who married Margaret, daughter of Sir John St. John of Bletso. Leland, who was there in 1538, speaks of the building as an ancient structure. Melchbourne Park, the seat of Lord St. John of Bletso, was built by Sir William Weston, the last of the priors of the Knights Hospitallers: the front has since been modernized; there are beautiful gardens with conser­vatories and hothouses, surrounded by about 400 acres of park and woods, with fine game, preserves and two lakes: the mansion underwent extensive restoration in 1877. Lord St. John of Bletso is lord of the manor and sole landowner. The soil is strong clay; subsoil clay. The chief crops are wheat, beans and peas. The area is 2,630 acres of land and 8 of water assessable value, £1,672; the population in 1911 was 184.

Post, M. O. & T. Office—John P. Richards, sub-postmaster.

Letters received by motor from Bedford at 8.5 a.m. & 3.30 p.m. (callers only); dispatched at 11.10 a.m. & 5.30 p.m.; sundays, 3.45 p.m.; delivery on sunday to callers only.

Public Elementary School (mixed), built by Lord St. John; it will hold 50 children; Mrs. Louisa Peel, mistress. The school stands on Lord St. John's property.