Bedfordshire

The population of Bedfordshire is around 514,700. It covers an area of 473 sq miles. It is often abbreviated to “Beds”, it is bordered by the counties of Northamptonshire, The county town is Bedford.

Industry

The main industry is agriculture and the land is very fertile with more than four fifths of the area under cultivation. There are many market gardens producing food for London The main products are cereals, and the raising of livestock. Bedford, Luton, and Dunstable are the chief manufacturing towns producing cars, hats, electrical and precision instruments.

Geography

The chief river is the Great Ouse, with its tributary the River Ivel. The surface is mostly flat but varied in the South by a spur of the Chiltern Hills, and in the Northwest by a range of chalk hills.

History

In the early Bronze Age, about 1,800 BC, the Beaker people settled in the Ouse valley. The Romans settled in the south of the county, with Dunstable (Roman Durocobrivae) as an important route centre. After the Romans he area was settled by invading Anglo-Saxons and Danes; Bedford was founded by Danes. The shire was first mentioned as a political unit in 1010 and has survived virtually unchanged since then.

Bedfordshire County Flag