Bedfordshire

 

or Bedford, county (1991 pop. 514,200), 473 sq mi (1,225 sq km), central England. It is also called Beds. The county seat is Bedford. The terrain is generally flat, with low chalk hills in the south. The region, drained by the Ouse River, is fertile, and more than four fifths of the area is under cultivation; agriculture is the chief occupation. The production of cereals, especially wheat, and the raising of livestock are of equal importance with market gardening for London. Bedford, Luton, and Dunstable are the chief manufacturing towns (hats, automobiles, electrical equipment, precision instruments, machinery, and ball bearings). The county was a refuge for Protestants from the European continent during the English civil war. The Puritan writer and preacher John Bunyan preached at Bedford.

Bedfordshire
Geography
Status	Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county
Region	East of England
Area - Total - Admin. council - Admin. area	Ranked 41st  km² ( sq mi) Ranked 34th  km² ( sq mi)
Admin HQ	Bedford
ISO 3166-2	GB-BDF
ONS code	09
NUTS 3	UKH22
Demographics
Population - Total (2006 est.) - Density - Admin. council - Admin. pop.	Ranked 36th 590,700 /km² (/sq mi) Ranked 31st 403,900
Ethnicity	86.3% White 8.3% S.Asian 2.9% Black.
Politics
Bedfordshire County Council http://www.bedfordshire.gov.uk/
Executive	Conservative
Members of Parliament	Alistair Burt (C) Nadine Dorries (C) Patrick Hall (L) Kelvin Hopkins (L) Margaret Moran (L) Andrew Selous (C)
Districts
Bedford Mid Bedfordshire South Bedfordshire Luton (Unitary)

Bedfordshire (abbreviated Beds.) is a county in England that forms part of the East of England region.

Its county town is Bedford. It borders Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire (with the Borough of Milton Keynes) and Hertfordshire.

The highest elevation point is 243 metres (797 feet) on Dunstable Downs in the Chilterns.

The county motto is "Constant Be", which is taken from the hymn To Be A Pilgrim by John Bunyan.

As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity Plantlife chose the Bee Orchid as the county flower.^[1]

The traditional nickname for people from Bedfordshire is "Bedfordshire Bulldogs" or "Clangers", this last deriving from a local dish comprising a suet crust dumpling filled with meat or jam or both.

History

Main article: History of Bedfordshire

The first recorded use of the name was in 1011 as "Bedanfordscir", meaning the shire or county of Bedford, which itself means "Beda's ford" (river crossing).

Bedfordshire was historically divided into the nine hundreds: Barford, Biggleswade, Clifton, Flitt, Manshead, Redbournestoke, Stodden, Willey, Wixamtree, along with the liberty and borough of Bedford.

There have been several minor changes to the county boundary; for example, in 1897 Kensworth and part of Caddington were transferred from Hertfordshire to Bedfordshire.

Luton was a county borough from 1964 until 1974, and it has been a unitary authority since 1997. However, it remains part of the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, with a single Lord Lieutenant representing the sovereign throughout this entire area. Except where otherwise indicated, this article relates to the whole Ceremonial County of Bedfordshire, including Luton.

Geography and geology

The southern end of the county is part of the chalk ridge known as the Chiltern Hills. The remainder is part of the broad drainage basin of the River Great Ouse and its tributaries.

Most of Bedfordshire's rocks are clays and sandstones from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, with some limestone. Local clay has been used for brick-making of Fletton style bricks in the Marston Vale.

Glacial erosion of chalk has left the hard flint nodules deposited as gravel — this has been commercially extracted in the past at pits which are now lakes, at Priory Country Park, Wyboston and Felmersham.

The Greensand Ridge is an escarpment across the country from near Leighton Buzzard to near Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire.

Administration

Bedfordshire is a shire county, mostly under the control of Bedfordshire County Council. This is divided into three local government districts, Bedford Borough, Mid Bedfordshire District and South Bedfordshire District.

Additionally, Luton Borough is a unitary authority that forms part of the county for various functions such as Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff, but does not come under county council control.

The Department for Communities and Local Government is considering reorganising Bedfordshire's administrative structure. Four proposals are being looked at:

• To abolish the three districts within the county to create a Bedfordshire unitary authority. (Luton would remain a separate unitary authority.)
• To create two unitary authorities: one based on the existing Bedford Borough, and one a combination of Mid Bedfordshire and South Bedfordshire Districts. (Luton would remain a separate unitary authority.)
• To create two unitary authorities: one a combination of Bedford Borough and Mid Bedfordshire District, and one a combination of Luton Borough and South Bedfordshire District.
• To form an "enhanced two-tier" authority, with the four local councils under the control of the county council, but with different responsibilities.

The changes are planned to be implemented no later than 1 April 2009.^[2][3]

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Bedfordshire at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added[4]	Agriculture[5]	Industry[6]	Services[7]
1995	4,109	81	1,584	2,444
2000	4,716	53	1,296	3,367
2003	5,466	52	1,311	4,102

Moto Hospitality is based at Toddington service station. The Kier Group is based in Sandy. Whitbread is based in Dunstable.

Education

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Bedfordshire has a comprehensive education system, with every school part of the upper/middle/lower school system, with the upper schools all having a sixth-form and offering education from 13-18. It has seven independent schools. Compared to many LEAs, it really wholeheartedly embraced the comprehensive ideal by effectively eliminating choice of schools in many towns. In many parts of Bedfordshire, everyone goes to the same middle school (ages 9-13) and upper school. In other parts of England, in individual towns, there is usually one school performing better (often much better) than another. The largest school population is the Bedford district, with Mid Bedfordshire the smallest, having only four upper schools. Overall, the results for GCSE are not as high as expected for a largely rural county. The national average for GCSE results of 5 grades A-C including English and Maths is 45.8%. Every district in Bedfordshire is below this and the average for the county as a whole is 45.1%. The best performing school at GCSE is the Cedars Upper School and Community College in Linslade, closely followed by the Sharnbrook Upper School and Community College in Sharnbrook. At A level, the Sharnbrook Upper School gets the best results by some distance, followed by the Manshead Upper School in south Dunstable. Compared to other counties, the A level results are not excellent and under the England average, but much better than nearby Luton.

GCSE results by council district (%)

• Mid Bedfordshire 45.4
• South Bedfordshire 45.1
• Bedford 44.4
• (Luton Unitary Authority 36.5)

Transport

Although not a major transport destination, Bedfordshire lies on many of the main transport routes which link London to the Midlands and Northern England.

Roads

Three of England's six main trunk roads pass through Bedfordshire:

• The A1 London to Edinburgh road (The Great North Road) runs close by Biggleswade and Sandy
• The A5 London to Holyhead road (Watling Street), passes through Dunstable
• The A6 St Albans to Carlisle, through Luton and Bedford

To these were added in 1959 the M1 motorway London to Yorkshire motorway. This has three junctions around Luton, one serving Bedford and another serving Milton Keynes.

Railways

Again, three of England's main lines pass through Bedfordshire:

• The West Coast Main Line has but a short section in the far west of the county. The one station at Leighton Buzzard is served by Silverlink trains to Euston and Northampton.
• The East Coast Main Line has stations at Arlesey, Biggleswade and Sandy, served by First Capital Connect services to King's Cross and Peterborough
• The Midland Main Line serves Luton and Bedford with trains to many destinations operated by Midland Mainline and First Capital Connect.

There are rural services also running between Bedford and Bletchley along the Marston Vale Line.

Taxis

Bedfordshire is served by a large number of taxi companies. Luton is reported to have the highest number of taxicabs per head of population in the United Kingdom^[8] with a number of firms competing for work in the town and from London Luton Airport.

Waterways

The River Great Ouse links Bedfordshire to the Fenland waterways. As of 2004 there are plans to construct a canal linking the Great Ouse at Bedford to the Grand Union Canal at Milton Keynes, 23 km distant.^[9]

Air

London Luton Airport has flights to many UK, European and North African destinations, operated by low-cost airlines.

Towns and villages

Main article: List of places in Bedfordshire

Ampthill Barton-Le-Clay Bedford Biggleswade Beeston Bletsoe Clapham Clifton Clophill Cranfield Dunstable Eversholt Felmersham Flitton Flitwick Gravenhurst Greenfield Harlington Harrold Henlow

Hockliffe Houghton Regis Kempston Langford Leighton Buzzard Leagrave Luton Marston Moretaine Maulden Millbrook Milton Ernest Oakley Odell Old Warden Pavenham Pertenhall Pulloxhill Radwell Ravenstone

Riseley Renhold Sandy Sharnbrook Shefford Silsoe Stewartby Stotfold Studham Thurleigh Toddington Turvey Whipsnade Willington Woburn Wootton

Places of interest

Bedford Blues Cardington (R101 hangar) Chicksands De Grey Mausoleum Dunstable Downs Elstow Moot Hall Harrold Odell Country Park Hoo Hill Maze Houghton House Leighton Buzzard Light Railway Luton Hoo Luton Museum & Art Gallery Marston Vale Community Forest Priory Country Park Mossman Collection RAF Henlow

RSPB The Lodge, Sandy Someries castle The Shuttleworth Collection Stevington Windmill Swiss gardens, Old Warden[1] Stockwood Craft Museum Stewartby Lake Waulud's Bank Charles Wells Brewery Whipsnade Wildlife Park Whipsnade Tree Cathedral Willington Dovecote & Stables Woburn Abbey Woburn Safari Park Wrest Park Gardens

List of notable Bedfordians

Harold Abrahams Mick Abrahams Ronnie Barker Martin Bayfield Lady Margaret Beaufort John Bunyan Tim Foster John Gosling

Arthur Hailey Sir William Harpur Asher Hucklesby Trevor Huddleston Sir Alec Jeffreys Andy Johnson John Le Mesurier Sir William Morgan Monty Panesar

Sir Joseph Paxton Paula Radcliffe Mark Rutherford Matt Skelton Sir Malcolm Stewart Alistair Cook Charles Wells Paul Young

References

1. ^ County flowers in Britain www.plantlife.org.uk
2. ^ Bedfordshire County Council - The proposal
3. ^ Communities and Local Government - Proposals for future unitary structures: Stakeholder consultation
4. ^ Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
5. ^ includes hunting and forestry
6. ^ includes energy and construction
7. ^ includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
8. ^ "Luton South", UK Polling Report
9. ^ Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust

External links

• Bedfordshire DMOZ directory

Ceremonial counties of England

Counties of the Lieutenancies Act 1997 Bedfordshire • Berkshire • City of Bristol • Buckinghamshire • Cambridgeshire • Cheshire • Cornwall • Cumbria • Derbyshire • Devon • Dorset • Durham • East Riding of Yorkshire • East Sussex • Essex • Gloucestershire • Greater London • Greater Manchester • Hampshire • Herefordshire • Hertfordshire • Isle of Wight • Kent • Lancashire • Leicestershire • Lincolnshire • City of London • Merseyside • Norfolk • Northamptonshire • Northumberland • North Yorkshire • Nottinghamshire • Oxfordshire • Rutland • Shropshire • Somerset • South Yorkshire • Staffordshire • Suffolk • Surrey • Tyne and Wear • Warwickshire • West Midlands • West Sussex • West Yorkshire • Wiltshire • Worcestershire

Historic counties of England

Counties that originate prior to 1889 Bedfordshire • Berkshire • Buckinghamshire • Cambridgeshire • Cheshire • Cornwall • Cumberland • Derbyshire • Devon • Dorset • Durham • Essex • Gloucestershire • Hampshire • Herefordshire • Hertfordshire • Huntingdonshire • Kent • Lancashire • Leicestershire • Lincolnshire • Middlesex • Monmouthshire • Norfolk • Northamptonshire • Northumberland • Nottinghamshire • Oxfordshire • Rutland • Shropshire • Somerset • Staffordshire • Suffolk • Surrey • Sussex • Warwickshire • Westmorland • Wiltshire • Worcestershire • Yorkshire

www.bedford.org.uk

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