Hatch, Bedfordshire

Thorncote Green (often known only as Thorncote) is a hamlet located in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. The settlement is located to the north of the village of Northill, and practically next to Budna. Thorncote Green lies near to the border between Central Bedfordshire and the Borough of Bedford.

Budna is a hamlet in the civil parish of Northill, in Bedfordshire, England. Budna is located to the north of the village of Northill, and near to Thorncote Green and Hatch. Budna lies on the border between Central Bedfordshire and the Borough of Bedford.

Northill is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of the county of Bedfordshire, England about 6.5 miles (10 km) southeast of the county town of Bedford. The 2011 census showed the population for Northill village as 338 and for the civil parish, 2,270.The parish includes the village of Upper Caldecote and the hamlets of Budna, Lower Caldecote, Hatch, Ickwell and Thorncote Green. Northill has a small village green with duck pond, owned by the parish council.

Beeston is a hamlet of about 530 acres (2.1 km2) in the town of Sandy in the Wixamtree hundred of the county of Bedfordshire, England, about a half a mile south of Sandy, north of Biggleswade and east of Bedford. Beeston appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it shown as having a mill: "Bistone: Roland, Norman and Pirot from Eudo FitzHubert; William Speke; Thurstan the Chamberlain; Godmund; Alwin from the King. Mill." The medieval period saw the construction of the Great North Road, the post road connecting London to Edinburgh, which ran through Beeston. In the 1930s the Ministry of Transport upgraded the Great North Road to a trunk road and it became the A1 in 1923. Subsequent upgrades during the 1960s saw this section of the road become a dual carriageway which effectively split the hamlet and isolated the larger part of Beeston from Sandy, pedestrian access being limited to a footbridge. Plans are afoot to reposition the road to bypass Beeston/Sandy but no date for this work has been set. Historically the main occupation of the residents of Beeston was market gardening, farming and straw plaiting (woman & girls) for the hat industry.Beeston is in the Anglican Parish of St Swithun, Sandy. It has a Wesleyan (Methodist) Chapel built 1865 with seating for 300. A former chapel on Beeston Green is now a private home. The major feature of Beeston is the 13-acre (53,000 m2) village green bounded by many of the older residences.

Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I listed church in Northill, Bedfordshire, England. It became a listed building on 31 October 1966.The church's royal arms appears on a stained glass window designed by John Oliver. It is dated 1664, and therefore the arms is that of King Charles II. The window was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Grocers, whose own arms appears next to the royal arms.

The Riddy is an 8.4 hectare flood meadow and Local Nature Reserve located in Sandy, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, bordering the River Ivel. Owned by Sandy Town Council but managed by both the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity, the 7.7 hectares (19 acres) site gains its name from a small stream which flows through the eastern end of the reserve. The different habitats in the Riddy support a diverse range of species, including a multiplicity of grasses and flowering plants in the meadows, aquatic plants and water voles which inhabit the ditches, ponds and stream, and birds which feed and hunt across the reserve.The Riddy is currently open to the general public; although some of the paths are reasonably rough, the site is most accessible via the riverside path: a disabled access gate is provided as well. The River Ivel may be fished from the reserve border, but a permit from the town council and national rod licence are required.

Sandy is a town and civil parish in Central Bedfordshire, England. It lies 8 miles (13 km) to the east of Bedford, 18 miles (29 km) to the south west of Cambridge and 43 miles (69 km) north of Central London. It had a population of 12,171 at the 2021 census. The town takes its name from a low range of sandy hills on the eastern side of the town, which form part of the Bedfordshire Greensand Ridge. The main part of the built-up area lies between the hills to the east and the River Ivel to the west. The A1 road skirts the western edge of the town. Sandy railway station is on the Great Northern route between London and Peterborough, with the railway running along the eastern edge of the built-up area. The parish also includes the hamlet of Beeston, which straddles the A1 to the south-west of the town. The headquarters of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is at The Lodge at Sandy Warren in the hills to the east of the town, where it has been based since 1961.

Upper Caldecote is a village in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England about 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Bedford. Its population at the 2011 census was 1,218.It is part of Northill civil parish. Most of Upper Caldecote is situated directly to the west of the A1 road, with facilities including Caldecote CE Academy (a lower school), a post office, Anglican church, Methodist chapel, antiques shop, garage, G&M Growers, cricket club, football pitches and changing rooms, tennis courts, netball court, children's park and two newsagents. The Anglican church of All Saints was built in 1867–8, in yellow brick with red brick banding and dressings, to designs of Arthur Blomfield.

Ickwell is a small, rural village in the Central Bedfordshire district of the county of Bedfordshire, England about 6.5 miles (10 km) south-east of the county town of Bedford. The 2011 census shows its population as 298.Ickwell is part of the civil parish of Northill. The village is known for its maypole and for being the birthplace of Thomas Tompion, the "Father of English Clockmaking".

Ickwell May Day is an annual celebration held in the village of Ickwell, Bedfordshire. The event is a celebration of May Day, a festival marking the beginning of summer, and has been celebrated from at least 1651. The festival includes elements of traditional English culture, such as morris and maypole dancing. Ickwell is unusual in having a permanent maypole, located on the village green, as well as including adult dancers in its maypole dancing.

Girtford Halt was a short-lived railway halt on the Varsity Line which served the Girtford area of Sandy in Bedfordshire, England. It was opened by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1938, but closed to passenger traffic two years later in 1940. The line itself closed in 1968, and the site of the railway station has been obliterated by a roundabout.

Ickwell Bury, at the heart of the former manor of Ickwell, Bedfordshire, was first built by John Harvey in 1683 near the site of an older manor house. The Harvey family continued to own the house until 1925, although from 1900 it had housed Horton Preparatory School.In 1898, Ickwell Bury was the property of John Edmund Audley Harvey DL JP and was described as "a mansion of red brick, in the Queen Anne style, standing in a park and woodlands of about five hundred acres, approached by an avenue of trees about a mile in length".The school closed in 1937, and soon afterwards most of the empty house was destroyed in a fire, though a 17th-century wing with its Thomas Tompion clock were saved. The property was then bought by Colonel George Hayward Wells, chairman of the brewery Charles Wells, who rebuilt the house on a smaller scale and on his death left the Ickwell Bury estate to the Bedford Charity to be used by Bedford School, his own old school. The school uses the grounds for field studies and as a conservation reserve, and for a number of years Ickwell Bury (the house) was rented from the school by the Yoga for Health Foundation and was open all year round. It was especially busy during the summer months where all the rooms were open and tents covered the grounds around the main house. In 1999 Bedford School sold Ickwell Bury and its garden - it is now a private house - and in 2013/14 it sold the remaining 47 hectares of farmland, a cottage, and (with planning permission for conversion to homes) the listed barns of Home Farm. In a wood between Ickwell Bury and Northill church is an ancient earthwork, with a high bank on the east side, enclosing long pools which are thought to have been fish ponds for the monks of a college at Northill or for the priory of Ickwell Bury.