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Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty Inventors and Scientists Royal Consorts and Heirs
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Composers National Parks Writers and Poets

Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire lies to the north of London.



 Towns include the county seat of Bedford.

Anglo-Saxons and Danes
Once part of the small kingdom of the Middle Angles.

National Landscape (former AONB)

The Chiltern Hills spread across four counties, starting in the Thames Valley in Oxfordshire, the hills stretch in a north-east direction up through Buckinghamshire to the counties of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. They were designated in 1965 to protect the chalk downland landscape and the abundance of woodland which covers it, providing an important haven for wildlife close to London.

Writers and Poets
The author of The Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan was born at Elstow in 1628 and spent over 12 years in prison at Bedford for his religious beliefs.

John Bunyan


As I walked through the wilderness of this world.
The Pilgrim's Progress (1678)



 In 1674 the poet Nicholas Rowe was born in Little Barford. He succeeded Nahum Tate as poet laureate in 1715 and held the post until his death in 1718 when he was followed by Laurence Eusden.

Nicholas Rowe
Poets laureate


Death is the privilege of human nature,
And life without it were not worth our taking.
The Fair Penitent (1703)

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Societies
Bedfordshire Historical Record Society
Bedfordshire
Local History Association