Barton Hills, Bedfordshire

Church of St Nicholas is a Grade I listed church in Barton le Clay, Bedfordshire, England. It became a listed building on 3 February 1967.

Barton-le-Clay is a large village and a civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire Borough in Bedfordshire, England, bordering Hertfordshire. The village has existed since at least 1066 and is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Barton Rovers Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Barton-le-Clay, Bedfordshire, England. The club are currently members of the Southern League Division One Central and play at Sharpenhoe Road. They are affiliated to the Bedfordshire Football Association.

Barton Gravel Pit is a 1.1-hectare (2.7-acre) nature reserve east of Barton-le-Clay in Bedfordshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.This former gravel pit has been partially filled in to become flower-rich chalk grassland. Plants include knotted hedge-parsley, common poppy and great pignut. Mature beech trees provide a habitat for the white helleborine orchid.There is access from the second public bridleway on the right off Hexton Road, proceeding from Barton-le-Clay. When the path turns left, the site is 100 metres on the left. There are no signs or information board on the site.

Streatley is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England.

Barton-Le-Clay Airfield (Barton In The Clay Aerodrome) was first established in 1935 to the west of the village, on farmland owned by the nearby Brook End Green Farm. Its first residents were the newly formed Luton Aircraft Limited and The Dunstable Sailplane Company, both companies co-owned by W.L. Manuel and C.H. Latimer-Needham. Before the mid-1960s Barton-Le-Clay was called Barton In The Clay but the name was changed to the current form by the Parish Council of the time. All references and documentation prior to this date will be in the original village name. Luton Aircraft commenced construction of its two first aircraft under the management of W.L. Manuel, the Luton Buzzard and the Luton Minor. They were completed ready for flight on 12 December 1935 and 11 July 1936 respectively. In late 1936 the company moved from Barton-Le-Clay to new premises named The Phoenix Works on Oxford Rd, Gerrards Cross, after a fire substantially damaged the workshop building and contents. The Dunstable Sailplane Company had started life just a year before, building and repairing gliders in the village of Hockliffe south west of Barton-Le-Clay. Most of the company's clients were from the recently formed and nearby London Gliding Club, from whose hangars Manuel had previously been working. Marendaz Aircraft came to Barton-Le-Clay airfield in 1937, formed by D.M.K. Marendaz in 1936 from the remains of Marendaz Special Cars Ltd at the Cornwallis Works, Maidenhead to manufacture aircraft. Production of the company's first aircraft had been severely damaged in a fire and the work to rebuild was priority after the move. The Marendaz Mk3 was registered as G-AFGG on 23 March 1938; a second aircraft called the Marendaz Trainer was registered as G-AFZX on 31 October 1939.The Bedford School of Flying was granted licence on 1 January 1938 and the Flying school formed on 14 January 1938, training of a large number of CAG members (as many as 500). The airfield's day-to-day management was handled by International Aircraft & Engineering Ltd which, like the Bedford School of Flying, was owned by D.M.K. Marendaz and Dorothy Summers. The School operated until 1940. On 22 July 1940 No 24 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) was established at Luton and Barton-le-clay was assigned as a Relief Training Ground as the main Luton airfield became more congested. When the EFTS relocated, Luton airfield became the home of No 5 Ferry Pool, an all-women group of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), who also used Barton-le-Clay as its Relief Training Ground. No.5 Ferry Pool had relocated from the Hatfield de Havilland Aircraft Company factory site and later moved operations to Haddenham, Buckinghamshire (RAF Thame), in 1943 though they retained use of the Barton-Le-Clay airfield, transporting student pilots by bus each day until the ATA disbanded at the end of November 1945. Barton-le-Clay airfield returned to civil use post 1945, with the grass airstrip being returned to agriculture and the buildings being occupied for industrial use. The airfield has an active research group which documents its findings on the Barton-Le-Clay Community Website.

Hexton is a small village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, about 6 miles (10 km) west of Hitchin. This parish is a salient of Hertfordshire jutting northwards into Bedfordshire. The southern half of the parish is part of the chalky downs of the Chiltern Hills, which are covered with short turf and plantations of fir trees. The hills end abruptly and close to their foot lies the village of Hexton. It stands among grass fields and orchards at the beginning of a low plain, which, sloping gradually to the north, becomes merged in the large plain of southern Bedfordshire. The southern boundary of the parish is the grassy Icknield Way. Hexton formerly belonged to the half-hundred of Hitchin, but when it came into the possession of the abbots of St Albans Abbey it was probably added by them to their hundred of Cashio. Hexton was originally named Hehstanstuna, Hegestanestone (11th century); Hextenestona (14th century); Hextone (15th century), from Anglo-Saxon Heahstānes tūn. Much of the parish was owned by George Hodgson, owner of Hexton Manor, a large modernized house standing in an extensive park. There is no regular village street, but most of the houses are near cross roads, which lead north, south, east and west and connect Hexton with the neighbouring small villages.Hexton stands in well-wooded and hilly country adjacent to the Bedfordshire border. The church, dedicated to St Faith, is mediaeval with heavy 19th-century restoration. The Manor House in its extensive park dates from at least the 15th century, although it was substantially altered in 1901. The village was owned by the de Lautour family who lived at the Manor and were descendants of the French Dukes of Bouillon, however the manor and estate was then passed on to Major Sir Patrick Ashley Cooper and is still owned by his descendants.

Saint Faith's Church, Hexton is the Anglican parish church for the village of Hexton, Hertfordshire. The church is within the parish of Barton-le-Clay in the Diocese of St Albans. The church has been a Grade II* listed building since 1968.

Smithcombe, Sharpenhoe and Sundon Hills is an 86.1-hectare (213-acre) Site of Special Scientific Interest in Sharpenhoe in Bedfordshire. Most of it is a National Trust property comprising Sundon Hills, Moleskin and Markham Hills, Sharpenhoe Clappers and Smithcombe Hills. It is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and Sharpenhoe Clappers is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument (for its prehistoric and medieval features).Much of the site is unimproved chalk grassland with many plants which are now rare, and Festuca ovina is dominant over large areas. Orchids include Herminium monorchis and Aceras anthropophorum. An uncommon rose, Rosa stylosa, is found in scrub areas. There is also beech forest with a ground layer including primroses.Clappers are rabbit warrens (from the French "clapier"), and meat, fur and leather from rabbits used to be an important part of the local economy. Sharpenhoe Clappers is an Iron Age hill fort, together with medieval rabbit warrens and associated agricultural earthworks.There is access to the National Trust property from Sharpenhoe Road.

South Beds Golf Club is a golf club in Galley Hill, near Bramingham and north of Luton, Bedfordshire, England. It was established in 1892 and is ranked as the fourth best golf course in the county by the website Top 100 Golf Courses.

Galley and Warden Hills is a 47 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Warden Hill, a suburb of Luton in Bedfordshire. The local planning authority is Central Bedfordshire Council, and it was notified in 1986 under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is also a Local Nature Reserve.The site is chalk grassland with areas of dense scrub, and it has many plants which are rare nationally and locally. It has a wide variety of wild flowers and more than twenty species of butterflies. Near the top of Galley Hill there are two Bronze Age barrows, one of which was used for public executions in the Middle Ages.The Icknield Way Path passes through the hills on its 110-mile course from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Knettishall Heath in Suffolk. There is access from Warden Hill Road.

Hexton Chalk Pit is a 1.9-hectare (4.7-acre) nature reserve in Hexton in North Hertfordshire, managed by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. It is grassland with steep slopes and many chalk-loving plants such as horseshoe vetch, yellow-wort, milkwort and rockrose. There are five species of orchid and a large colony of chalkhill blue butterflies. The site has extensive views over the countryside.The reserve is on the left of the road signposted "Lilley" from Hexton. There is also access by a footpath, signposted "circular walk", from Barton Hill Road, close to the Icknield Way Path.