Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire (abbreviated Beds.) is a in  that forms part of the.

Its is. It borders, , (with the ) and.

The highest point is 243 metres (797 feet) on  in the.

The county is "Constant Be", which is taken from the hymn  by.

As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity chose the  as the.

The traditional for people from Bedfordshire is "" or "", this last deriving from a local dish comprising a suet crust dumpling filled with meat or jam or both.

History
Main article:

The first recorded use of the name was in as "Bedanfordscir", meaning the shire or county of Bedford, which itself means "Beda's ford" (river crossing).

Bedfordshire was historically divided into the nine s:, , , , , , , , , along with the liberty and of Bedford. There have been several minor changes to the county boundary; for example, in 1897 and part of  were transferred from  to Bedfordshire.

was a from 1964 until 1974, and it has been a  since 1997. However, it remains part of the of Bedfordshire, with a single  representing the  throughout this entire area. Except where otherwise indicated, this article relates to the whole Ceremonial County of Bedfordshire, including Luton.

Geography and geology
The southern end of the county is part of the ridge known as the. The remainder is part of the broad drainage basin of the and its tributaries.

Most of Bedfordshire's rocks are s and s from the and  periods, with some. Local clay has been used for -making of style bricks in the.

erosion of chalk has left the hard nodules deposited as gravel &mdash; this has been commercially extracted in the past at pits which are now lakes, at,  and.

The is an escarpment across the country from near Leighton Buzzard to near Gamlingay in.

Administration
Bedfordshire is a, mostly under the control of. This is divided into three local government districts,, and.

Additionally, is a  that forms part of the county for various functions such as Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff, but does not come under county council control.

The is considering reorganising Bedfordshire's administrative structure. Four proposals are being looked at: The changes are planned to be implemented no later than 1 April 2009.
 * To abolish the three districts within the county to create a Bedfordshire unitary authority. (Luton would remain a separate unitary authority.)
 * To create two unitary authorities: one based on the existing Bedford Borough, and one a combination of Mid Bedfordshire and South Bedfordshire Districts. (Luton would remain a separate unitary authority.)
 * To create two unitary authorities: one a combination of Bedford Borough and Mid Bedfordshire District, and one a combination of Luton Borough and South Bedfordshire District.
 * To form an "enhanced two-tier" authority, with the four local councils under the control of the county council, but with different responsibilities.

Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Bedfordshire at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

is based at service station. The is based in. is based in.

Education
Bedfordshire has a comprehensive education system, with every school part of the upper/middle/lower school system, with the upper schools all having a sixth-form and offering education from 13-18. It has seven independent schools. Compared to many s, it really wholeheartedly embraced the comprehensive ideal by effectively eliminating choice of schools in many towns. In many parts of Bedfordshire, everyone goes to the same middle school (ages 9-13) and upper school. In other parts of England, in individual towns, there is usually one school performing better (often much better) than another. The largest school population is the Bedford district, with Mid Bedfordshire the smallest, having only four upper schools. Overall, the results for GCSE are not as high as expected for a largely rural county. The national average for GCSE results of 5 grades A-C including English and Maths is 45.8%. Every district in Bedfordshire is below this and the average for the county as a whole is 45.1%. The best performing school at GCSE is the in, closely followed by the  in. At A level, the Sharnbrook Upper School gets the best results by some distance, followed by the in south. Compared to other counties, the A level results are not excellent and under the England average, but much better than nearby Luton.

GCSE results by council district (%)

 * Mid Bedfordshire 45.4
 * South Bedfordshire 45.1
 * Bedford 44.4
 * (Luton Unitary Authority 36.5)

Transport
Although not a major transport destination, Bedfordshire lies on many of the main transport routes which link to the  and.

Roads
Three of England's six main pass through Bedfordshire:
 * The London to  road (The Great North Road) runs close by Biggleswade and Sandy
 * The London to  road, passes through Dunstable
 * The  to, through Luton and Bedford

To these were added in the  London to  motorway. This has three junctions around Luton, one serving Bedford and another serving.

Railways
Again, three of England's main lines pass through Bedfordshire:
 * The has but a short section in the far west of the county. The one station at Leighton Buzzard is served by  trains to  and.
 * The has stations at Arlesey, Biggleswade and Sandy, served by  services to  and
 * The serves Luton and Bedford with trains to many destinations operated by  and.

There are rural services also running between and  along the.

Taxis
Bedfordshire is served by a large number of taxi companies. is reported to have the highest number of taxicabs per head of in the  with a number of firms competing for work in the town and from.

Waterways
The links Bedfordshire to the  waterways. As of there are plans to construct a  linking the Great Ouse at Bedford to the  at Milton Keynes, 23 km distant.

Air
has flights to many, an and North n destinations, operated by low-cost s.

Towns and villages

 * Main article:

Bibliographic References

 * History of Bedfordshire 1066-1888 by Joyce Godber
 * A Bedfordshire Bibliography by L R Conisbe published in 1962 with a supplement in 1967
 * Bedfordshire Historical Record Society by H O White (published annually).
 * Guide to the Bedfordshire Record Office 1957 with supplements.
 * Guide to the Russell Estate Collections Published in 1966.
 * Elstow Moot Hall leaflets On and 17th Century Subjects
 * A Bedfordshire  by John Dony
 *  and the Hat Industry by John Dony
 * Pillow Lace in the East Midlands by
 * Bedfordshire Magazine (Published Quarterley)