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Upper Sundon

Bedfordshire geography stubsCentral Bedfordshire DistrictVillages in Bedfordshire
The Crown, Upper Sundon geograph.org.uk 225652
The Crown, Upper Sundon geograph.org.uk 225652

Upper Sundon is a village located in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. The village is the largest settlement in the wider Sundon civil parish, though Lower Sundon is presumed to be older, as the parish church (first built in the 13th Century) is located there. The manor of Sundon is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. The manor was held by the de Clare, Badlesmere and Scrope families until the mid 16th century, when it passed to the Cheyne family. In 1716 it was sold to William Clayton, 1st Baron Sundon. It later passed to the Page-Turner family.Today, Upper Sundon houses most of the amenities located in the parish, including Sundon Lower School and a pub. Historically the village contained three pubs but two have since closed leaving The Red Lion as the only public house in Upper Sundon. The village is close to the large town of Luton, and is bordered on the west by the M1 motorway. The village has a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Sundon Chalk Quarry. The Icknield Way Path passes through the village on its 110-mile journey from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Knettishall Heath in Suffolk. The Icknield Way Trail, a multi-user route for walkers, horse riders and off-road cyclists also passes near the village.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Upper Sundon (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Upper Sundon
Harlington Road,

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Wikipedia: Upper SundonContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.93834 ° E -0.481 °
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Address

The Red Lion

Harlington Road 13
LU3 3PE , Sundon
England, United Kingdom
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The Crown, Upper Sundon geograph.org.uk 225652
The Crown, Upper Sundon geograph.org.uk 225652
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Nearby Places

Sundon Chalk Quarry
Sundon Chalk Quarry

Sundon Chalk Quarry is a 26.2-hectare (65-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Upper Sundon in Bedfordshire. It was notified in 1989 under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and the local planning authority is Central Bedfordshire Council. The site is privately owned but there is free public access.The quarry was established to provide chalk and marl for the Sundon cement works, which operated between 1899 and 1976. The site is part of a large complex of disused chalk quarries, and its varied habitats include fens, lakes, chalk grassland, scrub and woodland. Interesting chalkland plants found here include ploughman’s spikenard, wild liquorice and woolly thistle, and what is probably the largest colony of the Chiltern gentian in England.The quarry has one of the most important assemblages of insect species in Bedfordshire, including sixteen species of dragonfly and damselfly, and twenty-one of butterfly, including the uncommon Adonis blue. The odontids include the scarce blue-tailed damselfly and the ruddy darter dragonfly, both of which are scarce in Britain, and the emerald damselfly and the red-eyed damselfly, which are uncommon in Bedfordshire. There are a number of uncommon beetles including Apion astragali, the larvae of which feed solely on the wild licorice, itself a scarce plant in Britain. There are also amphibians, with the common frog, smooth newt and great crested newt regularly breeding here.The Chiltern Way passes through the site on a footpath from Church Road.