“Following a year at Linden House, I was a boarder at Kirkman’s in Newnham Road, from 1954 to 1958.
What we then called ‘The Mound,’ the piece of land opposite Kirkman’s, is now known formally as Bedford Castle Mound. I doubt whether any of my contemporaries had any idea whatsoever of the strategic importance of medieval Bedford. I certainly didn’t. Not then. ‘The Mound’ was in fact the last relic of a mighty fortress, motte and bailey design, built at the end of the 11th century by William the Conqueror’s sons, William II and his successor, Henry I.”