Haynes, Bedfordshire

Haynes Church End is located in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. The settlement is close to the larger villages of Houghton Conquest and Haynes. Haynes Church End forms part of the Haynes civil parish and contains the Grade-II*-listed parish church of St Mary the Virgin, as well as Haynes Park.

The present St Mary's Church is located in the centre of the small village of Clophill, between Bedford and Luton in the South Midlands of England. The new church, built in 1848, replaced the old church by order of the Church Commissioners in 1850. The old church building, formally The Church of St Mary The Virgin (shortened to The Church of St Mary) and known colloquially as Old St Mary's or The Old Parish Church, is at the edge of the village, and is estimated to be around 650 years old. It sits at the crest of the Greensand Ridge, offering views over the surrounding countryside. Its graveyard is a haven for wild flowers and wildlife. After the church moved to the village centre, incorporating various items from the old church building, the old building was converted for use as a mortuary chapel, but in the 1950s it fell into ruin. The Church of England no longer has responsibility for the Old Parish Church, nor is it deemed to be consecrated; legally it is the responsibility of Central Bedfordshire Council. It acquired first local, then more widespread, notoriety in the 1960s, as a result of the desecration of a number of the church's graves, with the attendant sensationalist suspicions of Satanism and black masses. In 2010 Central Bedfordshire Council, prompted by local activists concerned with the condition of the church, announced it would attempt to restore the Old Church and adopt it for use as a bothy on a regional walking trail. Those plans proved too expensive for the council; instead, in 2012 a new project was announced, which included stabilising the existing ruin and providing a viewing platform on the top of the tower, besides building a heritage centre next to the church.

Haynes Park is a Georgian country house which stands in parkland at Haynes Church End, Bedfordshire, England. It is a Grade I listed building.Originally known as Hawnes Park it was built c.1725 for John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, a prominent statesman and remodelled and expanded several times since by his descendants. It is constructed of red and white brick to a square plan in two storeys with attics and slate roofs. Later extensions formed a courtyard. The south front has 13 bays in a 3-7-3 formation surmounted by a parapet, the two outer bays projecting in 2-storey bows. It stands in an estate which today comprises some 800 acres (320ha) of parkland and woodland. The estate passed down to John Thynne, 3rd Baron Carteret, who died childless, leaving it to his nephew Lord John Thynne, sub-Dean of Westminster, thence to his eldest son Francis John Thynne, who was lord of the manors of Kilkhampton, Stratton and Binhamy in Cornwall. Stowe House in Kilkhampton, Cornwall, had been the seat of John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath (1628–1701), which manor had descended to his third daughter Lady Grace Granville, suo jure 1st Countess Granville (3 September 1654 – 18 October 1744), wife of George Carteret, 1st Baron Carteret of [Haynes Park, and mother of John Carteret, 2nd Baron Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville. The progeny of this marriage, Barons Carteret, Earls Granville, and Marquesses of Bath (Thynne), were co-heirs to William Granville, 3rd Earl of Bath (1692–1711) who died of smallpox aged 19 without progeny when the earldom became extinct. Haynes Park was the home of Rev. Lord John Thynne (1798–1881), DD, Canon of Westminster, (whose monument with effigy survives in Westminster Abbey), 3rd son of Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquess of Bath. He inherited it from his childless uncle John Thynne, 3rd Baron Carteret (1772–1849). Francis Thynne's younger brother was Rev. Arthur Thynne (1833–1908), Rector of Kilkhampton, and a Canon of Truro Cathedral, of the newly built Penstowe House, Kilkhampton. Francis Thynne's second son was Lt Col. Algernon Carteret Thynne (1868–1917), DSO, Royal North Devon Hussars, of Penstowe, Kilkhampton, who was killed in action in Palestine during World War I, and whose monument by Sir William Goscombe John R.A. (1860–1952) survives in Kilkhampton Church. His widow (Anita) Constance Thynne (1871–1961), JP, lived on at Penstowe until her death in 1961. Algernon Thynne's brother and heir was George Thynne of Trelana, Poughill, who sold Penstowe in 1963.In 1908 Haynes Park was the residence of Mr. W. B. Greenfield (by apparent co-incidence "Greenfield" was the spelling adopted by the Grenville family during the 16th century), formerly tenant of Beechwood Park, Dunstable, and still contained a notable collection of portraits of Grenvilles, Carterets, and Thynnes, including John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath (1628–1701), Sir Richard VIII Grenville (1542–1591) "of the Revenge", dated 1571, Sir Bernard Grenville (1567–1636), his son, and Sir Bevil Grenville (1596–1643), his great-grandson, killed at the Battle of Lansdowne. A portrait also existed there of Sir George Carteret, 1st Baronet (c.1610–1680), Governor of Jersey, who purchased Haynes in 1667 and whose grandson was the husband of Lady Grace Grenville.In 1929 the house became a boarding school for girls known as Hawnes Girls School which closed in 1975 and was then taken over by Clarendon School for Girls after their previous premises at Abergele had been destroyed in a fire. After Clarendon School merged with Monkton Combe School near Bath, Somerset in 1992 the property was sold to the Radha Soami Satsang Beas British Isles (RSSB), an Indian sect and is still (2019) still occupied by the associated organisation Science of the Soul.

Wilstead is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, just off the A6 Bedford to Luton road, about five miles south of Bedford town centre, and within the Borough of Bedford. The name of the village has been spelled in many different ways, including Wilshamstead and Wylhamstead. Wilstead is now the usual name of the village, but the civil parish is named Wilshamstead. The council estimated the population of the parish at 2,550 in 2005. Most of the inhabitants live in the main village, but some live in other hamlets and isolated houses. Near the centre of the village are a small shop that incorporates a sub post office with a sorting office, two pubs, a pharmacy/convenience store, an Indian takeaway, a Chinese takeaway and a small used car sales outlet. Wilstead Primary School is located in Cotton End Road, as is the village hall, a modern building. The village also has a pre-school and two churches. Many allotments are close to the village playing fields. Playgrounds are located next to the primary school, off Long Meadow Drive. The Wilstead Jubilee Centre and Multi Use Games Area are in Jubilee Way, and a lawn bowls club is nearby. On the eastern edge of the village towards the A600 road is the Herrings Green Activity Farm & Bird of Prey Centre. Housing types include traditional farms, older houses (including thatched cottages and several Listed Buildings) and more modern, estate-type housing. Dwellings on the estate are generally of a more spacious character than the most modern developments. There is also a mobile home park called Briar Bank Park on the southern end of the village. On the other (Western) side of the A6 is a large development of new, high density housing called Wixams. The new town is being developed in phases, with the first phase (Lakeview) originally located in the Wilshamstead civil parish, however a new Wixams civil parish was created for the area in 2015. The yearly "Wilstead Ball" takes place the first Saturday of July and is a formal black tie and ball gown event. Taking place in a marquee in the grounds of one of the larger houses in the village, the money made from the event is normally allocated to a charity of the organisers preference. In recent years the event has sold out within days of the tickets sales being announced.

Clophill is a village and civil parish clustered on the north bank of the River Flit, Bedfordshire, England. It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Clopelle. "Clop" likely means 'tree-stump' in Old English. However, it also has cognate terms for clay, with which the soil of mid Bedfordshire is rich.

Cainhoe Castle was an 11th-century Norman castle, located near the village of Clophill, in the county of Bedfordshire, England. Cainhoe Castle was a motte and triple bailey castle, built by Nigel d'Aubigny, a Norman Knight, sometime after the Norman Invasion (1066). It was not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086; "Cainou: Nigel d'Aubigny; Thurstan from Avelina, Ralph Tailbois' wife. Mill." The d'Aubigny family, known for being deeply involved in the crusades, used the castle as the seat of the Barony of Cainhoe. The castle was to stay in the d'Aubigny family until the death of Simon d'Aubigny, who died without a male heir, in 1272. It then passed to the de Lacys and the Nortons, and then on to the Greys, Earls of Kent. The castle was occupied until the time of the Black Death (1348), when all the inhabitants died of the disease. The castle, and the small village that had built up around it, were discovered abandoned sometime later. By 1374 the castle was in ruins. The site was excavated in 1973, 1985 and 1986. Only earthworks remain. The site is a Scheduled Monument.

Maulden Heath is a 7.6-hectare (19-acre) Site of Special Scientific Interest in Maulden in Bedfordshire. It was notified in 1986 under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and the local planning authority is Central Bedfordshire Council. The site is owned by the Forestry Commission and managed by The Greensand Trust.There are two separate meadows in the site. The eastern meadow has two ridges, which have short grass, a moss layer and many herbs. The western meadow is a steep-sided valley which has similar habitats. There is access by a footpath from the Deadman's Hill car park.

Maulden Wood is a woodland situated in Bedfordshire, England, near the village of Maulden, on the greensand ridge that stretches from Leighton Buzzard to Gamlingay. It includes Maulden Wood and Pennyfather's Hill, a 148.8 hectare, biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The Woburn Sands Formation is a geological formation in England. Part of the Lower Greensand Group, it is the only unit of the group where it occurs, and thus is sometimes simply referred to as the 'Lower Greensand' in these areas. It was deposited during the late Aptian to early Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous. The lithology consists of sandstone or loose sand with rare wisps or thin seams of clay. The formation was extensively exploited in the 19th century for the "coprolite industry", with coprolite being a local term referring to phosphate nodules of varying origins (often the internal moulds of shells), named due to their resemblance to real coprolites. The formation contains reworked fossils of late Tithonian-Berriasian age from deposits that are no longer found locally, equivalent in age to the Sandringham Sand Formation in Norfolk and the Spilsby Sandstone of Lincolnshire, these include Dicranodonta and the ammonite Subcraspedites. Reworked dinosaur material is known from the Potton locality within the formation.

Beadlow Priory was a monastic foundation established between 1140 and 1146 by Robert D'Albini for a community of Benedictine monks.

Bedfordshire is a county in the East of England. It is bounded by Hertfordshire to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, and Buckinghamshire to the west. It has an area of 1,235 square kilometres (477 sq mi), and population estimated in 2015 at 630,000, with an increase of 10% over the previous ten years. The county town is Bedford, and the name is first recorded in the treaty in about 879 between King Alfred the Great and Guthrum, which divided English and Danish territory by a line which went through Bedford.Southern Bedfordshire is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. North and mid Bedfordshire are undulating claylands with broad river valleys of the River Great Ouse and its tributaries, and the Bedfordshire Greensand Ridge. Jurassic and Cretaceous clays are overlaid by Quaternary glacial deposits of chalky boulder clay.There are forty Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in Bedfordshire, designated by Natural England. Thirty-five are listed for their biological interest, and five for their geological interest. Three of the sites are also national nature reserves, twelve are in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and eleven are managed wholly or partly by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. In 2009 Bedfordshire was divided into three unitary local authorities: thirty-two sites are in Central Bedfordshire, eight in Bedford and none in Luton.

Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckinghamshire to the west. The largest settlement is Luton (225,262), and Bedford is the county town. The county has an area of 1,235 km2 (477 sq mi) and had a population of 704,736 at the 2021 census. Its other towns include Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable, and Biggleswade. Much of the county is rural. For local government purposes, Bedfordshire comprises three unitary authority areas: Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, and Luton. The county's highest point is 243 m (797 ft) on Dunstable Downs in the Chilterns.