Kempston Rural is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Borough of Bedford The Borough of Bedford is a unitary authority area with borough status in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. Its council is based in Bedford, its namesake and principal settlement, which is the county town of Bedfordshire. The borou ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

Kempston Rural was formed in 1896 when the old parish of

Kempston Kempston is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. It had a population of 19,330 in the 2011 census. Kempston is part of Bedford, Bedford's built-up area and is situated directly sout ...

was split into two parts - Kempston Urban District (now the town of Kempston), and Kempston Rural parish. Historically Kempston was a large but lightly populated parish, with a decentralised population pattern. The typical parish in pre-Industrial England had one main village, perhaps complemented by a few hamlets, but in Kempston the settlement around the church - Church End - has never had more than a dozen or so houses, so it has never dominated the parish. When urban growth arrived in Kempston in the 19th century it was concentrated in the eastern parts of the parish, around the neighbouring ends of East End and Up End (i.e. the area around the High Street and St John Street) and in Kempston New Town, close to the boundary of Bedford.

Geography

Kempston Rural is to the west of the town of Kempston, and comprises approximately the western half of the historical

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

of Kempston. The parish includes the small hamlets ("ends" in local parlance) of

Box End Box End (or Kempston Box End) is a small village located in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. It is in the civil parish of Kempston Rural. The settlement was historically one of the hamlets (or "Ends") of Kempston. Today, Box End ...

, Church End, Gibraltar, Green End, West End and Wood End. These five ends each have a dozen or more houses, up to a hundred or so, with Box End and Wood End being the largest and most identifiable of the settlements. The narrow south western extension of the parish was once known as Bourne End or Kempston Bourne, but the hamlet is now represented only by Meadow Farm. Other semi-forgotten "ends" in Kempston Rural - now represented by just a house or two - include Crow End and Littleworth End, in the Western part of the parish, and Moor End and Mill End, both of which lie to the north of Box End, towards Bromham. Not all of "rural" Kempston is in Kempston Rural: there is one "end" of the old parish -

Kempston Hardwick Kempston Hardwick is a small village on the edge of the town of Kempston in Bedfordshire, England. Historically it was one of the hamlets or "ends" scattered across the parish of Kempston. It is served by Kempston Hardwick railway station on the ...

- which is now within the boundaries of the Stewartby civil parish, and the rural land either side of Ridge Road at the Bury and Bell End Farm, is in Kempston Urban. For local election purposes Kempston Rural is in Turvey Ward, which also includes the civil parishes of Stagsden and Turvey. The area is represented on Bedford Borough Council by Mark Smith, elected in May 2007. All Saints' Church at Church End, was originally the parish church for the whole of Kempston, and is the most notable historical building in either part of Kempston.

References

*''Bedfordshire Parish Surveys: Kempston'', published by Bedfordshire County Council, 1984.

External links

Map of the parish boundaries in the Borough of Bedford
{{Places in Bedford Borough Civil parishes in Bedfordshire Kempston Borough of Bedford