Church of All Saints, Riseley, Bedfordshire

Riseley is a village and civil parish located in North Bedfordshire, England. The village name has had alternative spellings in the past such as Rislau, Riseleg, Riselai and Risely, however all these spellings are considered archaic. It has a population of 1,284 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 1,286 at the 2011 Census, and is near the villages of Bletsoe, Sharnbrook, Swineshead, Pertenhall, Keysoe, Thurleigh and Melchbourne. The nearest town to Riseley is Rushden in the neighbouring county of Northamptonshire, approximately 8 miles away to the north west. The county town of Bedford is approximately 9 miles to the South of Riseley. The village has one watercourse, which is a tributary of the River Ouse, flowing through it known locally as the 'Brook' around which in medieval times the village was built.

Melchbourne Preceptory was a priory in Melchbourne, Bedfordshire, England. It was established in the 12th century and disestablished around 1550.

Bedford Autodrome is an autodrome based on the former site of RAE Bedford, in the village of Thurleigh, Bedfordshire. It is owned by former Formula One driver Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation.

Church of St Mary Magdalene is a Grade I listed church in Melchbourne, Bedfordshire, England. It became a listed building on 13 July 1964. The church is one of the Stodden Group of churches, which is a group of six parish churches also including All Hallows’ Church in Dean, St Mary's Church in Shelton, St Mary's Church in Yelden, St Nicholas' Church in Swineshead, and St Peter's Church in Pertenhall. The Stodden Group is part of the Sharnbrook Deanery within the Diocese of St Albans in the Church of England.

Royal Air Force Thurleigh or more simply RAF Thurleigh is a former Royal Air Force station located 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. Thurleigh was transferred to the United States Army Air Forces Eighth Air Force on 9 December 1942 and designated Station 111, and used for heavy bomber operations against Nazi Germany.

RAE Bedford was a research site of the Royal Aircraft Establishment between 1946 and 1994. It was located near the village of Thurleigh, north of the town of Bedford in England and was the site of aircraft experimental development work. In the book "A Short Illustrated History of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford", author Arthur Pearcy writes: "(RAE Bedford is) the finest research and development establishment outside the U.S.A." Starting in 1946, construction work began to turn the wartime RAF airfield into what became known as the Royal Aeronautical Establishment, Bedford. The runway was extended in the post-war period to accommodate the Bristol Brabazon aircraft, which required a very long runway but which never went into production. A lot of the development for what became the Harrier was done here, one early version became known as the 'Flying Bedstead'. Also Thurleigh had a catapult runway and it was here that the 'ski jump' later fitted to some aircraft carriers was also developed. One local road was put in a cutting for a runway to be put above it, linking the Airfield site to the wind-tunnel site about a mile and a half away, although ultimately this was never carried out. The runway is some 10,500 ft long, and some 300 ft wide and as of June 2011 is used by a number of car storage companies. Naval Air Department and the BEA Helicopters Experimental Unit was here at some point.The airfield was decommissioned in February 1994 after a lengthy study determined that flight operations should be centralised at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire. Due to the cost and impracticality of relocating the Advanced Flight Simulator system the site retains some of its development work (under the banner of QinetiQ from mid-2001 onwards). As of early 2007, QinetiQ have sold their remaining stake in the Bedford Airfield site (as well as the nearby 'Wind Tunnel' site) and are planning to relocate the remaining staff to Farnborough in early 2008, finally ending the site's long association with military aviation.The airfield was closed officially in March 1994 and sold in 1996 with the RAE having become the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). DERA consolidated its experimental flying operations at Boscombe Down, moving aircraft from Farnborough as well as Bedford. The wind tunnel site is now the Twinwoods Business Park and some of the buildings are in commercial use. Red Bull Racing use the remaining horizontal wind tunnel and Twinwoods Adventure use the vertical wind tunnel, previously the Vertical Spinning Tunnel (VST) for indoor skydiving. The VST was converted in 2005 by Bodyflight to be the first indoor skydiving wind tunnel in the UK, and at 16.4 ft in diameter remains the largest. On 1 March 2019, Historic England listed the VST as Grade 2 due to its historic and architectural interest. The rest of the building was converted in 2007 and is used by Twinwoods Adventure as a multi-activity centre. Another building on the site is the Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre.

Melchbourne is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Melchbourne and Yielden, in the Bedford district, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. In 1931 the parish had a population of 160. On 1 April 1934 the parish was abolished to form "Melchbourne and Yelden".The village is located west of Swineshead and east of Yelden. Melchbourne Preceptory was located in the village. Today the village is the location of the Church of St Mary Magdalene.

Swineshead is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in the county of Bedfordshire, England.

Church of St Nicholas is a Grade I listed church in Swineshead, Bedfordshire, England. It became a listed building on 13 July 1964.It is a 14th-century church with 15th-century additions. There are several frescoes and misericords.

Melchbourne and Yielden is a civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in the county of Bedfordshire, England. The two parishes of Melchbourne and Yelden (also known as Yielden) were combined in 1934. Until 1974 the parish formed part of Bedford Rural District. The official name of the parish as recorded by the Office for National Statistics and Ordnance Survey is "Melchbourne and Yielden", but the parish council calls itself "Melchbourne and Yelden Parish Council", using the other common variant spelling for Yelden. Ordnance Survey maps prior to the 1934 parish merger generally used the name "Yelden" for both the village and parish, whereas their maps since 1934 generally call the village "Yelden" but the parish "Melchbourne and Yielden", suggesting that the official use of the spelling "Yielden" in the merged parish name may have arisen from the 1934 North Bedfordshire Review Order which merged the parishes.

Bedford Aerodrome (ICAO: EGBF) is located 5 nautical miles (9.3 km; 5.8 mi) north of Bedford, in Bedfordshire, England. The aerodrome which is privately owned serves the Bedford Autodrome.

The Church of All Saints is a Grade I listed church in Upper Dean, Bedfordshire, England. It became a listed building on 13 July 1964.The church escaped restoration in Victorian times and has a perfect country interior. The church was more or less rebuilt in the 15th century when only the tower and spire (14th-century) and the chancel arch (13th-century) were retained. The roofs are all 15th-century and fine specimens of that period. There are fine screens across the chancel arch and at the west ends of both chapels; the pews are old.