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This article is about the English county town. For other uses see Bedford (disambiguation)
Bedford

Statistics
Population: 82,488
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference: Maps for TL055495
Administration
District: Bedford
County: Bedfordshire
Region: East of England
Nation: England
Other
Police force: {{{Police}}}
Ceremonial county: Bedfordshire
Historic county: Bedfordshire
Post office and telephone
Post town: BEDFORD
Postal district: MK40/MK41/MK42
Dialling code: 01234
Politics
UK Parliament:
European Parliament: East of England


Bedford is the county town of the English county of Bedfordshire. It is the administrative centre for the Bedford borough. The town has a population of 82,488, with 19,440 in the adjacent town of Kempston. The wider borough, including a rural area, has a population of 147,911.

Contents

  • 1 History
  • 2 Transport
  • 3 Demographics
  • 4 Nearby settlements
  • 5 See also
  • 6 External links

History

Bedford in 1611 Bedford in 1806

The town is often identified with the Bedcanford (meaning a fortress on a river) of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle and the Battle of Bedford it records there in 571, when "Cuthwulf fought against the Britons..., and took four towns". The town was destroyed by the Vikings but rebuilt. In 919 Edward the Elder built the town's first known fortress, on the south side of the River Ouse and there received the area's submission. This fortress was again destroyed by the Danes. (For the castle's further history see Bedford Castle.)

Bedford was a market town for the surrounding agricultural region from the early Middle Ages. It traces its borough charter in 1166 by Henry II and elected two members to the unreformed House of Commons. It had a castle, razed in 1224.

A number of major engineering works opened in the nineteenth century, most notably the Rolls Royce engineering plant, but most of these have now closed, and the town lacks a strong driver for its economy. Nonetheless it is expanding more rapidly than most English towns, with a number of major residential developments in progress. This is partly due its strong rail links to London, and the associated demand for commuters' dormitory housing.

It was the home and prison of John Bunyan, the author of the Pilgrim's Progress. Other prominent Bedfordians include Tim Foster, men's coxless fours Olympic gold medallist; Paula Radcliffe, the UK's top female long-distance runner, the late comedian Ronnie Barker and heavyweight boxer Matt Skelton.

The River Great Ouse passes through the town centre (see also ford (river)), and is lined with attractive gardens known as The Embankment. Bedford is home to four public schools run by the Harpur Trust charity, endowed by Bedfordian Sir William Harpur in the sixteenth century.

Bedford town centre

Every two years, an event called "The River Festival" is held near the river in Bedford during early July. The event lasts for two days and regularly attracts about 250,000 guests. The event includes sports, funfairs and live music. It is the second largest regular outdoor event in the UK beaten in numbers only by the Notting Hill Carnival. The Bedford Regatta each May is Britain's largest one-day rowing event.

Transport

Bedford has two railway stations:

  • Bedford (Midland) is located on the Midland Main Line. It is the northern-most stop on the Thameslink rail service to London, and is also served by Midland Mainline trains. It is also the terminus of the Marston Vale Line from Bletchley.
  • Bedford St Johns, is the penultimate stop on the Marston Vale line.

Demographics

A former version of Bedford Bridge in 1783.

Bedford is home to the largest concentration of Italian immigrants in the U.K. According to a 2001 census, 10% of Bedford's population is of Italian descent. This is mainly as a result of labour recruitment in the early 1950's by the London Brick Company in the southern Italian regions of Puglia, Campania, Calabria, and Sicily. Bedford's Italian, almost 'Little Italy' feel is enhanced by a wide variety of Italian bars, restaurants and social clubs throughout the town as well as a large number of delis and grocery shops selling Italian & continental produce and by the large Italian mission Church ran by the Scalabrini Fathers order. Bedford has, since 1954, had its own Italian Vice Consulate.

In addition to Italian migrants, Bedford has also been the recipient of significant immigration from South Asia, Eastern Europe (particularly in the last few years), Greece, Cyprus, the Middle East and Africa making it one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse towns in both Britain and the European Union, especially in proportion to its size. Bedford is home to over one hundred immigrant languages, including Italian, Punjabi, Turkish, Polish, Portuguese and both Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. With one language per thousand residents, the town has twenty-five times as many languages as London in proportion to population size, the most linguistically diverse city on the planet. If London had the same proportion of languages to population, every known language on the planet would be spoken there. There are also significant numbers of English-speaking immigrants from former British colonies, most notably South Africa and the West Indies.

Streetmap of Bedford

Nearby settlements

Ampthill, Biggleswade, Bromham, Stagsden, Dunstable, Hitchin, Kempston, Leighton Buzzard, Letchworth, Luton, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Rushden, Sandy, St Neots, Sharnbrook, Shefford, Wellingborough, Harrold

See also

  • Bedford Vehicles

External links

  • Map sources for Bedford
  • 134 (Bedford) Squadron - Air Training Corps
  • Bedford Freecycle™ Group
  • Bedford Freecycle™ Café Group
  • 2nd Bedford Boys & Girls Brigade Companies
  • Bodyflight Ltd (Worlds Largest Indoor Skydiving Tunnel)



River Great Ouse edit
Administrative areas: Northamptonshire | Buckinghamshire | Bedfordshire | Cambridgeshire | Norfolk
Flows into: The Wash

Towns (upstream to downstream): Brackley | Buckingham | Old Stratford
Milton Keynes (Stony Stratford, Wolverton, New Bradwell, Stantonbury, Great Linford) | Newport Pagnell | Olney
Bedford | St Neots | Godmanchester | Huntingdon | St Ives | Ely | Littleport | Downham Market | King's Lynn


Major tributaries (upstream to downstream by confluence): River Lovat (or Ouzel) | River Ivel
River Kym | Old Bedford River | New Bedford River | River Cam | River Lark | River Little Ouse | River Wissey


Major bridges (upstream to downstream): Great Barford Bridge | A428 Bridge St Neots
St Neots Town Bridge | Godmanchester Chinese Bridge
A14 bridge, River Great Ouse | Huntingdon Old Bridge | St Ives Bridge

Longest UK rivers: 1. Severn 2. Thames 3. Trent 4. Aire 5. Great Ouse 6. Wye 7. Tay 8. Spey 9. Nene 10. Clyde 11. Tweed 12. Eden

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