EDLESBOROUGH Eddinberge (xi cent.); Aedulfi Berga, Edulferesberga, Edulnesberth (xii cent.); Edoffebergh, Edelvesberge, Hedesburuwe, Edelesbury (xiii cent.).
Edlesborough is a large and straggling parish covering an area of 3,670 acres, of which 1,268 acres are arable land and 926 acres permanent grass. There is a copse called Oakley Wood towards the south, but on the whole the parish is very sparsely wooded. The parish contains the village of Edlesborough and the hamlets of Dagnall and Northall, and until recently the hamlet of Hudnall, which was annexed to Little Gaddesden (Herts.) in March 1885. The soil is clay with a subsoil of chalk, Upper Greensand and Gault, producing crops of barley, wheat and beans.
The southern part of the parish which lies on the Chiltern Hills reaches a height of 687 ft., and there is a fall towards the north to 289 ft. The village lies to the north of the parish and consists of about half a dozen farms and several cottages; many of these, though much restored, date from the 16th or 17th century, and are of timber and brick with thatched or tiled roofs. The green, a square open space several acres in extent, lies to the east of the village and is bordered by several old cottages and the smithy. The church is built on a hillock at the western extremity with the vicarage some distance to the east. There is a Wesleyan chapel built in 1858.
At Church Farm, some distance east of the church, is a fine barn probably of early 16th-century date. It is of eight bays, framed out of heavy timbers, with side aisles, and originally rested on an ashlar stone base, part only of which remains. The infilling is of thin bricks. It has been a good deal altered by the insertion of doors, windows and partitions, and an upper floor at the north end, and has a modern tiled roof. The south end was apparently rebuilt in the 18th century. To the north of the church there is a 17th-century house of red brick which has, however, been much altered. There are several moated houses in the neighbourhood, among them the Manor Farm, and Butler's Farm, a brick house on the western boundary. East of the village on the Bedfordshire border are the Edlesborough Mills, with an old windmill adjacent.
Dagnall (Daganhalle, xii cent.; Daghehal, xiii cent.; Dakenhald, xv cent.) is a fair-sized hamlet situated south-east of Edlesborough. Here is a Wesleyan chapel erected in 1848 and a residence for the curate. There is also a schoolroom built by Lord Brownlow. The hamlet of Northall (Northale, xiv cent.; Northill, xvi cent.) lies north-west of Edlesborough on the Bedfordshire border, on either side of the road from Leighton Buzzard to Hemel Hempstead. It has a Baptist chapel dating from 1812. An Inclosure Award for Edlesborough, Dagnall, Northall and Hudnall, dated 14 June 1865 under the Act of 1845, is in the custody of the clerk of the peace. Prehistoric remains have been found here. Among place-names are: Storks nest, Snytemere (xiv cent.).