Bedfordshire - Definition and Overview

Bedfordshire
Geography
Status:	Ceremonial & (smaller) Administrative County
Region:	East of England
Area: - Total - Admin. council - Admin. area	Ranked 41st 1,235 km² Ranked 34th 1,192 km²
Admin HQ:	Bedford
ISO 3166-2:	GB-BDF
ONS code:	09
NUTS 3:	UKH22
Demographics
Population: - Total (2002 est.) - Density - Admin. council - Admin. pop.	Ranked 36th 570,831 462 / km² Ranked 32nd 384,652
Ethnicity:	86.3% White 8.3% S.Asian 2.9% Afro-Carib.
Politics
Bedfordshire County Council http://www.bedfordshire.gov.uk/
Executive:	Conservative
Members of Parliament
Alistair Burt, Patrick Hall, Kelvin Hopkins, Margaret Moran, Jonathan Sayeed, Andrew Selous
Districts
Bedford Mid Bedfordshire South Bedfordshire Luton (Unitary)

Bedfordshire is a county in England. Its county town is Bedford. It borders on the ceremonial counties of Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire (with Milton Keynes), and Hertfordshire. Luton was part of Bedfordshire until 1997, when it was made a unitary authority. However, it is still 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.

The county motto is "Constant Be."

The first recorded use of the name was in 1011 as "Bedanfordscir," meaning "Beda's ford" (river crossing).

The highest elevation point is 801 feet, on the Dunstable Downs.

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.

Geography & 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 at Fletton. 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.

Transport links

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 3 junctions around Luton, and 1 on the western edge of this county but primarily serving Milton Keynes.

Railways

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

• 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 WAGN services to Kings Cross and Peterborough
• The Midland Main Line serves Luton and Bedford with trains to many destinations operated by Midland Mainline and Thameslink.

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 [1] (http://www.b-mkwaterway.co.uk/trust/index.html).

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
• Clophill, Cranfield
• Dunstable
• Eversholt
• Flitwick
• Hockliffe
• Kempston
• Leighton Buzzard
• Luton
• Marston Moretaine, Millbrook
• Old Warden
• Sandy, Shefford, Stotfold, Studham
• Toddington
• Whipsnade, Woburn, Woburn Sands

Places of interest

External links

• Bedfordshire DMOZ directory (http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/England/Bedfordshire/)

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