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BEDFORDSHIRE DID YOU KNOW?

The Royal Connection

Woburn Abbey and all the land surrounding it was given by Henry VIII to John Russell when Henry closed all the monasteries. The Russell family subsequently took on the title of Duke of Bedford. The house, as it is now, was largely rebuilt in 1744. Queen Victoria had been Queen for 4 years when she and her husband, Prince Albert, paid a week long visit to Woburn Abbey. The then Duchess of Bedford had been a Lady of the Bedchamber, a personal attendant of the Queen since she came to the throne in 1837. She and the Queen were good friends. A special meeting was held on the tennis courts for the 200 tenants of the Duke to greet the Queen.

Wobrun Abbey and grounds are normally open to visitors. The estate also has a deer park, breeding deers for sale all around the world.

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Bedfordshire Eats

Bedfordshire is probably most famous for something known as the Bedfordshire Clanger. It was originally eaten by farm labourers in the 19th century and possibly before. It is a pastry made into a roll and then filled with a savoury filling at one end and a sweet filling at the other and could easily be eaten while out working in the fields. As such it served as a main course and a dessert all in one bake.

The savoury end is filled with meat, diced potatoes and vegetables while the sweet end is made up of fruit, often apple but any fruit that is in season. Usually a suet crust is used for the pastry and the bake is tradionally steamed but can be baked.

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Bedfordshire VIPs

Seven random people who were born in bedfordshire in the last 100 years:-
Emily Atack (Actress), the late Harold Abrahams (1924 Olympic Gold Medallist), Carol Vordemann (TV Presenter), the late Ronnie Barker (Comedian), Stacey Dooley (TV Presenter), Faye Tozer (Singer with Steps) and the late Bishop Trevor Huddleston (Cleric and Anti-Apartheid Campaigner)

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Richard Remembers

There are certain counties in England that I haven't really spent much time and one I have already told you that I have never even driven through. Despite being fairly close to where I lived when I was young, Bedfordshire is one of those seldom vsited and not often driven through counties. However, if house prices had been a little lower there in 1971, I might have ended up living there. Sometime in October 1971 I was house-hunting for my first house. The first weekend my fiancee and I went out, with my father, and we went to look at some properties in and around Luton. We both worked in London so we had to be within commuting distance. Now, please don't laugh, but we couldn't find anything under £12,000. Next weekend we went to Essex and found a charming little bungalow, pictured on the left, for just under £6,000, made an offer, bought it and moved in early in 1972. That bungalow is now worth over £200,000.

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Owlbut's Birdwatch

There are no birds I could find that were special to Bedfordshire so I decided to choose the Green Woodpecker which can certainly be seen there. It is the largest of the three woodpeckers that breed in England. As you can see it has a long, strong bill, or beak, and a fairly short tail. It is green on its upper parts and has a red patch on top of its head. It has a pale green belly and a bright yellow rump.

They eat ants, lots of ants and use their strong beak to dig into ant's nests. They are about 30cm long, have a wingspan of 40cm and weigh, when adult, between 180 and 220 grams.

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Two extra sections, "It Happened Here" and "Now That's Weird", will appear on 27 January 2025