Bedfordshire or Bedford, county (1991 pop. 514,200), 473 sq mi (1,225 sq km), central England. It is also called Beds. The county seat is Bedford Bedford, town (1991 pop. 75,632), county seat of Bedfordshire, central England, on the Ouse River. It is an important industrial center; diesel engines, pumps, turbines, agricultural machinery, electrical equipment, and transistors are the chief manufactures.
..... Click the link for more information. . The terrain is generally flat, with low chalk hills in the south. The region, drained by the Ouse River, is fertile, and more than four fifths of the area is under cultivation; agriculture is the chief occupation. The production of cereals, especially wheat, and the raising of livestock are of equal importance with market gardening for London. Bedford, Luton Luton (l

`tən), city (1991 pop. 163,209), S central England on the Lea River.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Dunstable Dunstable (dŭn`stəbəl), town (1991 pop. 30,912), Bedfordshire, SE England.
..... Click the link for more information. are the chief manufacturing towns (hats, automobiles, electrical equipment, precision instruments, machinery, and ball bearings). The county was a refuge for Protestants from the European continent during the English civil war English civil war, 1642–48, the conflict between King Charles I of England and a large body of his subjects, generally called the "parliamentarians," that culminated in the defeat and execution of the king and the establishment of a republican commonwealth .
..... Click the link for more information. . The Puritan writer and preacher John Bunyan Bunyan, John (bŭn`yən), 1628–88, English author, b. Elstow, Bedfordshire.
..... Click the link for more information. preached at Bedford.

Bedfordshire

Administrative (pop., 2001: 381,571), geographic, and historic county, southeast-central England. Much of the county is occupied by the River Ouse valley; its capital is Bedford. Settled c. 1800 BC by the Beaker culture, the valley was resettled by the Romans in the 1st–5th centuries AD. First mentioned as a political unit in 1010, the county has survived virtually unchanged within its present boundaries. Its architectural masterpiece is Woburn Abbey, seat of the dukes of Bedford.