Silsoe

Wrest Park is a country estate located in Silsoe, Bedfordshire, England. It comprises Wrest Park, a Grade I listed country house, and Wrest Park Gardens, also Grade I listed, formal gardens surrounding the mansion.

Clophill is a village and civil parish clustered on the north bank of the River Flit, Bedfordshire, England. It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Clopelle. "Clop" likely means 'tree-stump' in Old English. However, it also has cognate terms for clay, with which the soil of mid Bedfordshire is rich.

Cainhoe Castle was an 11th-century Norman castle, located near the village of Clophill, in the county of Bedfordshire, England. Cainhoe Castle was a motte and triple bailey castle, built by Nigel d'Aubigny, a Norman Knight, sometime after the Norman Invasion (1066). It was not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086; "Cainou: Nigel d'Aubigny; Thurstan from Avelina, Ralph Tailbois' wife. Mill." The d'Aubigny family, known for being deeply involved in the crusades, used the castle as the seat of the Barony of Cainhoe. The castle was to stay in the d'Aubigny family until the death of Simon d'Aubigny, who died without a male heir, in 1272. It then passed to the de Lacys and the Nortons, and then on to the Greys, Earls of Kent. The castle was occupied until the time of the Black Death (1348), when all the inhabitants died of the disease. The castle, and the small village that had built up around it, were discovered abandoned sometime later. By 1374 the castle was in ruins. The site was excavated in 1973, 1985 and 1986. Only earthworks remain. The site is a Scheduled Monument.

The present St Mary's Church is located in the centre of the small village of Clophill, between Bedford and Luton in the South Midlands of England. The new church, built in 1848, replaced the old church by order of the Church Commissioners in 1850. The old church building, formally The Church of St Mary The Virgin (shortened to The Church of St Mary) and known colloquially as Old St Mary's or The Old Parish Church, is at the edge of the village, and is estimated to be around 650 years old. It sits at the crest of the Greensand Ridge, offering views over the surrounding countryside. Its graveyard is a haven for wild flowers and wildlife. After the church moved to the village centre, incorporating various items from the old church building, the old building was converted for use as a mortuary chapel, but in the 1950s it fell into ruin. The Church of England no longer has responsibility for the Old Parish Church, nor is it deemed to be consecrated; legally it is the responsibility of Central Bedfordshire Council. It acquired first local, then more widespread, notoriety in the 1960s, as a result of the desecration of a number of the church's graves, with the attendant sensationalist suspicions of Satanism and black masses. In 2010 Central Bedfordshire Council, prompted by local activists concerned with the condition of the church, announced it would attempt to restore the Old Church and adopt it for use as a bothy on a regional walking trail. Those plans proved too expensive for the council; instead, in 2012 a new project was announced, which included stabilising the existing ruin and providing a viewing platform on the top of the tower, besides building a heritage centre next to the church.

Maulden Heath is a 7.6-hectare (19-acre) Site of Special Scientific Interest in Maulden in Bedfordshire. It was notified in 1986 under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and the local planning authority is Central Bedfordshire Council. The site is owned by the Forestry Commission and managed by The Greensand Trust.There are two separate meadows in the site. The eastern meadow has two ridges, which have short grass, a moss layer and many herbs. The western meadow is a steep-sided valley which has similar habitats. There is access by a footpath from the Deadman's Hill car park.

Pulloxhill Grange was a priory in Bedfordshire, England. It is a Grade II listed building.In 1535, Dunstable Priory received from Woburn Abbey 5s. for land it held in Pulloxhill. In 1291, the value of the abbey's estates in Pulloxhill was £7 2s. 5d. In 1330, the abbey claimed sac and soc in Pulloxhill. In 1547, after the Dissolution of the monasteries, Pulloxhill Grange, was granted to Sir William Pagett.

The de Grey Mausoleum in Flitton, Bedfordshire, England, is one of the largest sepulchral chapels in the country. The mausoleum contains over twenty monuments to the de Grey family who lived in nearby Wrest Park. The cruciform mausoleum has its nave set against the north side of the chancel of the adjacent church of St John the Baptist and its south transept overlaps the east end. The oldest part of Mausoleum was built circa 1614, the eastern parts were added in 1705. The architect Edward Shepherd worked on the building during 1739–40. It is a Grade I listed building, a scheduled monument. and is in the guardianship of English Heritage who open it to the public.

Flitton (Flichtam, Fllite, Flute) is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Flitton and Greenfield, in the Central Bedfordshire district, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. The village derives its name from the River Flit which flows close by it. It is notable primarily as the home of the De Grey Mausoleum adjacent to the St John the Baptist Church. Richard Milward, the editor of Selden's Table Talk, was born at Flitton in 1609. There are two pubs, The White Hart by the church hall and Jolly Coopers at Wardhedges. The annual ‘Gala’ and ‘Potato Race’ are two of the main events that happen in the village. In 1961 the parish had a population of 572. On 1 April 1985 the parish was abolished to form "Flitton & Greenfield", parts also went to Flitwick, Pulloxhill and Westoning.The village was struck by an F1/T2 tornado on 23 November 1981, a part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.MK Dons leading goalscorer Izale McLeod lived on Flitton Hill during his second spell with the club in 2013–14.

Pulloxhill is a small village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England 342 ft above sea level with a population of 850 at the 2001 Census, increasing to 985 at the 2011 Census.Pulloxhill has a church, a school and one public house. The village shop and post office have closed. There are a number of historic buildings, including 15th Century Public House (The Cross Keys). The village pond was filled in several years ago after a fire at the old Bakery and now forms part of the village green where the school holds a maypole dancing concert every May. Pulloxhill Marsh is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. A village news letter is published monthly called the PVN (Pulloxhill Village News). The village is around a 20-minute drive from Bedford's town centre, and 25 minutes from the centre of Luton. It is approximately 350 miles to Lands End and approximately 650 miles to John O 'Groats.

Maulden Wood is a woodland situated in Bedfordshire, England, near the village of Maulden, on the greensand ridge that stretches from Leighton Buzzard to Gamlingay. It includes Maulden Wood and Pennyfather's Hill, a 148.8 hectare, biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

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.

Flitton Moor is a 6.9 hectare Local Nature Reserve and County Wildlife Site in Flitton in Bedfordshire. It is owned by Central Bedfordshire Council and managed by the council together with The Greensand Trust.The site was open moorland in the Middle Ages, but it was converted to agricultural land in the nineteenth century. The central area is pasture with a strip of woodland around the edge. Other habitats are fen and wetland. Trees there include osiers.There is access from Brook Lane to a path through the woodland, but no public access to the central field.