How End

Church of All Saints is a Grade I listed church in Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire, England. It became a listed building on 23 January 1961. The parish church, dedicated to All Saints, was built during the 14th century. There are also several monuments. Houghton Conquest's rectory was united with that of Houghton-Gildable in 1637, in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Lincoln. It was under the patronage of the Master and Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge.On 4 October 2018 it was reported that the entire lead roof had been stolen.

The National Institute for Research into Aquatic Habitats (commonly abbreviated as NIRAH) was a planned freshwater public aquarium in Stewartby, Bedfordshire. Originally sited at a 100 hectare (250 acre) location, with an expected cost of £350 million, the project failed to meet its planned completion date in 2012. The site of the aquarium was sold in 2015, with an expected loss of £4 million.

Houghton House is a ruined mansion house in the parish of Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire. It is a Grade I listed building, positioned above the surrounding countryside, and commands excellent views. Built from 1615 to 1621, it is said that the house was the model for House Beautiful in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678). It was abandoned in 1794 and stripped (by the owner) of its interiors and roof for sale as building supplies. Today the property is owned by English Heritage, and is open to free public access during daylight hours.

Kings Wood and Glebe Meadows is a 36.1-hectare (89-acre) Site of Special Scientific Interest in Houghton Conquest in Bedfordshire. A local teenage boy, Peter Sollars, discovered many rich communities of plants there, including a number of rare species, e.g. Butcher's Broom, Small Teasel and Green Hellebore in the wood, and combinations of Lady's Bedstraw, Spiny Restharrow, Great Burnet, Adders Tongue Fern and Cowslips in the meadows. The County Botanist at the time, John Dony, was notified of his findings, which were confirmed by a site visit with Peter . The site was notified in 1984 under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and the planning authority is Central Bedfordshire. It is also a Local Nature Reserve.This site has ash and maple woodland on heavy clay, a habitat which has become rare in lowland England. It is biologically diverse, with a number of rare species. Several plants are indicative of ancient woodland, such as wood melick and wood anemone. Glebe Meadows has a rich variety of species due to its traditional management, and there are also some small ponds and mature hedgerows.There is access by a footpath from Rectory Lane.

The Forest of Marston Vale is an evolving community forest in Marston Vale, which runs south west from the towns of Bedford and Kempston in Bedfordshire, England towards the M1 motorway. It is operated by a registered charity called the Forest of Marston Vale Trust. The vale is traditionally a brickmaking area, but brickmaking industry has been running down since the 1970s. It has left a large amount of spoiled countryside containing several large empty pits some of which have now been converted into lakes. The Forest of Marston Vale is one of twelve of community forest projects in the United Kingdom. It was initiated by the Countryside Agency and the Forestry Commission, in partnership with Bedfordshire County Council, Mid Bedfordshire District Council, and Bedford Borough Council. The total area covered is 61 square miles (158 km2), but most of this land is in private ownership. There are incentives for landowners to plant trees, and the target for community forests in general is to reach 30% tree cover. The principal public open space in the Forest is Marston Vale is the Millennium Country Park which covers 2.5 km2 (1 mile2) and was opened in 2000. The park features several lakes including the large Stewartby Lake and extensive wetlands. There is a visitor centre called the Forest Centre, which has a Lakeside Cafe, shop, toilets and bike rental. According to the official website the park attracts around a quarter of a million visitors a year. There are plans to create a larger park of over 3 square miles (7.8 km2) to the east of Bedford, which will be called Bedford River Valley Park. On 26 January 2018, the UK Environmental Agency granted a permit to Covanta Energy Limited to operate what will be the UK's largest waste incinerator, next to the Forest. The effect of this development remains to be seen.

Houghton Conquest is a village and civil parish located in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. The parish also includes the hamlet of How End.

Ampthill Park and Ampthill Park House is a country estate in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, England. The park was opened to the public after the Second World War.From the 14th century Ampthill Park was a royal lodge and hunting park. In the 15th century it was occupied by Sir John Cornwall, who had married the king's sister, Elizabeth of Lancaster, Duchess of Exeter. Sir John amassed a large fortune and constructed Ampthill Castle, a fortified house. After his death Ampthill Park passed to Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent before becoming royal property again. Henry VIII used it for hunting and to hold Katherine of Aragon during the annulment of their marriage. By 1600 the castle was ruinous and in 1661 the park was given by Charles II to John Ashburnham, a Royalist supporter.The present house was built from 1687-1689 by architect Robert Grumbold for the Ossory family who held the estate under lease. In the late 1700s the house was remodelled by Sir William Chambers and the grounds landscaped by Capability Brown. On the death of Lord Upper Ossory on 13 February 1818, Ampthill Park became the seat of Lord Holland in whose time Holland House in Kensington, London, became famous as a gathering place for intellectuals. It was home to Sir James Parke, Baron Wensleydale, until 1868, and from 1885 was the residence of Lady Ampthill. Notable 20th-century architect Sir Albert Richardson lived in Ampthill from 1919 until his death in 1964. During World War II the estate was occupied by the army. There was a farming camp near Ampthill, where volunteers recovered sugarbeet and were accommodated in tents in the grounds. After the war it was sold to Bovril Limited, becoming a Cheshire Home for the Disabled in 1955. In 1979, the mansion was rescued from dereliction and divided into four large homes. It is a grade II* listed building. The park is listed grade II.Ampthill Park was the burial place for the golden hare in the Kit Williams treasure hunt Masquerade. Ampthill Park House should not be confused with the former Ampthill House, which was demolished in 1953. The site of Ampthill House 52.031301679473806°N 0.48887789156448314°W / 52.031301679473806; -0.48887789156448314 (Ampthill House location) was developed for housing along today's Church Avenue in Ampthill town.

Stewartby is a model village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, originally built for the workers of the London Brick Company. The village was designed and built to the plans of the company's architect Mr F W Walker, laid out on 'Garden City' principle, a later and more modern development than such better-known Victorian model villages as Saltaire. Started in 1926, Stewartby is also a later model than Woodlands which was first planned in 1905. The later retirement bungalow development of the 1950s and 1960s with the pavilion community centre in their midst was designed by the neo-Georgian architect Professor Sir Albert Richardson. Today, Stewartby parish also includes Kempston Hardwick.

Cut-throat Meadow is a 1.5 hectare nature reserve in Ampthill in Bedfordshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.The reserve is in three separate areas off Ailesbury Road. There is a steeply sloping meadow area at the corner of Ailesbury Road and Church Street, a steeply sloping wood at the corner of Ailesbury Road and Snow Hill, and a pond between Rushbrook Close and Manton Close.Meadow saxifrage and field woodrush flower in the spring in the meadow area, and invertebrates include grasshoppers and bush crickets. The main trees in the wood are beech and scots pine, with an understorey of hawthorn, yew and hazel. The pond has reedmace and celery-leaved buttercup, and there are water boatmen and pond skaters on the surface.

Ampthill Town Football Club is a football club based in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, England. The club are currently members of Spartan South Midlands League Division One and play at Ampthill Park. They are affiliated to the Bedfordshire County Football Association.

Wixams railway station is a planned railway station that is due to be built on the Midland Main Line for the Wixams new town development in Bedfordshire, England. It is proposed that the station be between Bedford and Flitwick. The station was due to be completed in 2015, but Network Rail withdrew their promise of funding. In 2017, Gallagher Estates applied for funding from the government for the station.In July 2017, it was reported the site would be located further north as part of the East West Rail project.In January 2019, East West Railway Company revealed 5 options for a potential Bedford-Cambridge route, with 3 of the options proposing a new station at Bedford South close to Wixams. However in January 2020, the preferred route was announced which does not include a Bedford South station.In January 2022 Bedford Borough Council announced that it has chosen a preferred design for the new station. This design will now be put forward as a planning application, with completion of the station expected in 2024.

Kempston Hardwick is a small village on the edge of the town of Kempston in Bedfordshire, England. Historically it was one of the hamlets or "ends" scattered across the parish of Kempston. It is served by Kempston Hardwick railway station on the Marston Vale Line, which was one of the least-used stations in the UK railway network.For many years Kempston Hardwick was technically part of Kempston town. This is a consequence of the division of the old larger Kempston parish in 1896 into Kempston town and Kempston Rural. However, modern boundary changes have meant that Kempston Hardwick is now part of the rural parish of Stewartby (where the 2011 Census population was included).