Sharnbrook is a village and

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

located in the

Borough of Bedford Bedford, or the Borough of Bedford, is a Districts of England, local government district with borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It is administered by Bedford Borough Council, ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

, England, situated around north-west of

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

town centre. The settlement was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 as a parish within the Hundred of Willey but was probably first developed in

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

times. The oldest surviving building, St Peter's Church, is Norman. The name is believed to be derived from the Anglo Saxon word ''sharn'' meaning dung. Many of the older buildings in the village are constructed of the local oolitic

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

, also used in other traditional north Bedfordshire settlements. Situated just north of a loop in the River Great Ouse and almost due north of

, the village has developed as a ribbon-settlement running south-east to north-west, with the core of the community clustered at the north-western end.

Education

The village has two schools, the larger of which Sharnbrook Academy has a campus on the west of the village, serves a wide area and was attended by the marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe, who opened th
Paula Radcliffe Sharnbrook Community Sports Centre
named after her in April 2005. This Community Sports Centre is not only for students but also serves the wider local community of North Bedfordshire with sporting facilities. Students are aged from 11 to 18 and take both GCSE and A Level exams. The village's other school is Sharnbrook Primary which caters for young children aged from 3–11 years old who live in the immediate area.

Industry

Another major presence is the multinational company

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

which has the Lipton Institute of Tea research centre on the north-western edge of the village. This uses the grounds of Colworth House, originally built in the early 17th century and rebuilt in its present form by 1774 as a private house. The house itself is used as office space, with modern laboratory buildings beside and behind it. The site is being turned into a science park for use by a number of companies.

Sport

Sharnbrook is home to the village's boys' and men's football teams, which predate by many years the women's team that was established in 2002.

Transport

Sharnbrook railway station opened in 1857, but was closed in 1960. Sharnbrook is served by bus service 50 which is operated by

Stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

and operates between

Kettering Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...

and Bedford. The service is hourly Monday to Saturday and two hourly on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Literature

Sharnbrook is the village where the prototype of Uncle Silas, Joseph Betts, the protagonist of H.E. Bates's '' My Uncle Silas'' lived.

Wildlife

Sharnbrook is home to a colony of

red kite The red kite (''Milvus milvus'') is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other Diurnality, diurnal Bird of prey, raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harrier (bird), harriers. The species currently breeds only i ...

Britain's youngest father

In 1998, Sharnbrook resident Sean Stewart become the youngest father in Britain at only twelve years of age. He lived next door to the mother of his child, Emma Webster, who was four years older than he. The child was conceived when the pair were only 11 and 15. Webster said Stewart had told her he was her age when they started going out. Some also consider Stewart to be the youngest father ever recorded.

Gallery

File:St-Peter's-Church-Sharnbrook.jpg, File:SUS-aerial.jpg, File:John-Gibbard-Lower-School-Sharnbrook.jpg, File:Sharnbrook-High-Street.jpg, File:Old-Police-Station-Sharnbrook.jpg, File:Sharnbrook Mill.jpg, File:32 High Street.jpg,

References

External links

Colworth Park

The Sharnbrook Village Website

Sharnbrook Upper School Website

The Sharnbrook Upper School Alumni Website

The Paula Radcliffe Sharnbrook Community Sports Centre Website

Sharnbrook Evangelical Church

Sharnbrook Women's Football Club
*Britishlistedbuildings.co.uk {{authority control Villages in Bedfordshire Civil parishes in Bedfordshire Borough of Bedford