Cardington railway station

Cardington is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. Part of the ancient hundred of Wixamtree, the settlement is best known in connection with the Cardington airship works founded by Short Brothers during World War I, which later became an RAF training station. However most of the former RAF station is actually in the parish of Eastcotts, as is the settlement of Shortstown, which was originally built by Short Brothers for its workers. The village of Cardington is located to the north east of Shortstown and the RAF station, and houses most of the population of the parish, which was 270 in 2005, making it one of the least populated parishes in Bedfordshire.

Cardington Airfield, previously RAF Cardington, is a former Royal Air Force station in Bedfordshire, England, with a long and varied history, particularly in relation to airships and balloons. Most of the former RAF station is in the parish of Eastcotts, as is the settlement of Shortstown.

Cardington Workmen's Platform was a railway station on the Bedford to Hitchin Line which served the Royal Air Force station near the village of Cardington in Bedfordshire, England. A short-lived halt, it opened during the First World War and closed in 1921.

Heart Bedford (formerly Chiltern Radio 96.9) was an Independent Local Radio station based in the Priory Business Park in Bedford, Bedfordshire in England.

Shortstown is a village and civil parish on the outskirts of Bedford, on a ridge above the River Great Ouse, originally called Tinkers Hill.This ridge also overlooks the two other parts of Eastcotts – Harrowden to the north and Cotton End to the south. The name is taken from Short Brothers. The Admiralty established an airship works for the company in 1916. The company pulled out of airship work just three years later, but the name Shortstown stuck.

Cotton End is a small village and civil parish on the outskirts of Bedford. It became its own parish as of 1 April 2019, having previously been part of the parish of Eastcotts. Ordnance Survey maps from the 1880s show its name as 'Cardington Cotton End'.There is a primary school, a Baptist church, a village hall and a pub. The Baptist chapel was founded here in 1777. In 1912, Cotton End was described as a scattered hamlet with a school and a farm. It lies further down the A600 road from Shortstown. A new woodland created by the Forest of Marston Vale in 2005 called Shocott Spring.

Real Bedford Football Club is a football club based in Bedford, England. Established in 2002 as a merger of Bedford United and US Valerio, the club are currently members of the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division and play at McMullen Park. They are affiliated to the Bedfordshire County Football Association.

Bedford Town Football Club is a football club based in the Borough of Bedford, England. The club are currently members of the Southern League Division One Central and play at the Eyrie in Cardington, a village on the outskirts of Bedford. They are full members of the Football Association and affiliated to the Bedfordshire County Football Association.

Biggleswade Football Club is a football club based in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, England. The club are currently members of the Southern League Division One Central and groundshare at Bedford Town's Eyrie ground in Cardington

Eastcotts is an electoral ward within the Borough of Bedford, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It was formerly also a civil parish until its abolition on 1 April 2019, when Cotton End and Shortstown parishes were established.The boundaries of Eastcotts are approximately Exeter Wood to the east, Bedfordshire Greensand Ridge to the south and Shocott Spring to the west. There are two woodlands; Shocott Spring and Exeter Wood, two villages; Shortstown and Cotton End and two hamlets; Harrowden and Herrings Green. And some landmarks such as the Cardington Sheds.

Cardington Artificial Slalom Course (CASC) was the first artificial whitewater canoe slalom course in the UK when it was completed in July 1982, having been first discussed in 1972. Based on the River Great Ouse adjacent to Cardington sluice, within the grounds of Priory Country Park and approximately 2.5 km downstream from Bedford, the course has a dual role as both a flood control structure and a whitewater course for canoe slalom training and events. The course cost £273,000 and was funded by a consortium of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (now the Environment Agency), Anglian Water, the Sports Council (now UK Sport) and local councils and was seen as an excellent example of the relatively low cost adaptation of a necessary structure to provide a facility of national significance. The structure consists of an automatically controlled dropleaf control sluice, 9 metres wide, at the head of a concrete-lined channel which connects the upper reach of the river to the lower. The channel is 120 m long with a bed slope of 1:100. To create the required water flow pattern, fibreglass boulders known as "hippos" and "dollies" are secured to the base of the channel. The maximum head is 1.7 m with a maximum water capacity of 15 cubic metres per second. Originally seen primarily as a training venue, the course also holds two national ranking canoe slalom competitions per year at up to Division 2 level, and is the host every year to the Inter Clubs Final, which pits teams from all the top canoe slalom clubs against each other for an overall trophy. Running all weekend with camping overnight, the Inter Clubs is the largest canoe slalom event in the UK (by number of participants), a great social event for the sport and one of the highlights of the UK slalom calendar. The course celebrated its 25th anniversary in September 2007 with a visit by Frank Branston the Mayor of Bedford. The original project's vision of becoming 'a regional centre for canoeing' has come to fruition. Competition events at CASC are organised by Bedford's Viking Kayak Club which also organises national ranking events and finals in kayak marathon. Viking celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2011.

Harrowden is a one-street hamlet in the civil parish of Eastcotts, in Bedfordshire. Harrowden has only 18 houses and 32 people on the electoral roll. Elstow Brook runs through it. There is just one road - Old Harrowden Lane - which leads to a footpath known as Bumpy Lane, from where you can access the birthplace of John Bunyan, now simply marked by a stone.The street runs from east to west parallel and to the south of the A421 Bedford Southern Bypass, and 200 metres to the north of the village of Shortstown. There is a path at the west side of Harrowden named Bumpy Lane that leads to Abbey Fields. Like Shortstown, Harrowden is in the Eastcotts parish, of the Borough of Bedford.