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A great news article from the Evening Standard, London - [19-12-2005]

Up the hill to Bedfordshire

Evening Standard (London), Nov 30, 2005 by ROSALIND RUSSELL

BEDFORDSHIRE is the county no one talks about.

It's that flat bit you speed through on the A1 or the M1, nothing but brick works and clay pits and as picturesque as the Newport Pagnell service station. Right? Not entirely.

Cross the Great Ouse and the A428 and you discover the hidden villages of north Bedfordshire. If no one talks about them, it's because they fear publicity will inflate prices in an area where you can still buy a three-bedroom terrace cottage for less than Pounds 150,000. Bedford itself has a mishmash of a shopping area, but down by the river, with the rowing club and the remains of the castle, it has apartments as smart as any on the banks of the Thames at Maidenhead. In Pemberley Avenue, one of the best streets in town, period houses can sell for more than Pounds 800,000.

The Three Rs are big in Bedford: rugby, rowing, and now, running. So keen was Bedford to claim marathon athlete Paula Radcliffe for its own, it named a section of the A6 after her. The Pounds 25 million bypass, heading north out of the county town, is thus now known as Paula Radcliffe Way, even though Radcliffe lives in Leicester and was born in Cheshire. However, her home club is the Bedford County AC and she runs at the town's International Athletics Stadium whenever she is visiting her parents.

Just outside the town is Biddenham, a popular commuter village, with the thatched Three Tuns pub, a village green, curry-coloured cottages and private roads. Studded through the rolling farmland like currants in a Bath bun are attractive villages such as Bromham, with is cosy stone pub, The Swan, and Oakley, with popular lower and middle schools. There's Odell, and Sharnbrook (great cake shop, the Old Mill Theatre and narrow, ancient main street), and Felmersham on the river and Harrold, with a 13th century church and a village cricket team.

Transport: Midland Mainline and Thameslink run services into London; both charge Pounds 3,460 for an annual season to Bedfordshire ' ticket with Tube. A first-class season from Bedford to St Pancras (no Tube) is Pounds 4,470. The fastest journey time is 37 minutes; trains run every half hour.

Thameslink continues through London to Gatwick and Brighton. Both operators service Luton airport. A cheap day return to London costs Pounds 15.50, the standard return is Pounds 30.50.

When the Eurostar station at St Pancras is completed, Bedford will be less than three hours from Paris.

Shopping: The usual chains are bolstered by an MS, a Debenhams, and Laura Ashley and a Sainsbury's supermarket, but there is also a gourmet food market in Bedford on Thursdays and several smaller shops offer designer clothing lines.

Schools: There are five private schools and four state secondary schools in the area, plus a further four major schools within a short car journey.

Included among theses state schools is Sharnbrook, with one of the biggest sixth-form colleges in the country, so high performing that it draws families into its catchment area like a magnet. It not only has a fully equipped sound-recording studio in its arts department, it has a TV studio producing weekly magazine programmes broadcast school-wide on a close-circuit network.

Time out: Bedford offers Indian , Chinese, Italian, Mediterranean and English, and several pubs selling good food. Further afield, Cornfields Restaurant and Hotel in Colmworth is popular.

'It's fantastic here' MARK and Lesley Plant, with four-year-old daughter Florence, made the move that Londoners dream about. At the end of July this year, they sold their Victorian terrace house in Balham and bought a Georgian rectory in Colmworth, six miles north- east of Bedford, with a cottage tucked in the grounds. They paid just short of Pounds 1 million.

"I didn't think there were any unmodernised houses like this still on the market," says kitchen designer Mark. "This one has been 1960s-ised, but we're knocking it into shape. We had to put more into the kitty, but it will end up with five bedrooms, two bathrooms and three reception rooms. "Although the house was built in 1820, it has a moat from a much earlier settlement." Mark commutes in to Wandsworth and is quite pleased with the rail service.

"It is fantastic here," he says. "It's the last undiscovered commutable bit outside London, it's not fashionable and it is off the beaten track." Bye-bye Balham: Mark and Lesley Plant are delighted with their Georgian rectory in Colmworth

What's on offer

Roselea Cottage, Ravensden. Five bedroom thatched house in three acres with paddock and woodland. Taylors (01234 325081) Pounds 409,950: The Old Bakery, Milton Ernest, with four bedrooms, three reception rooms, and large kitchen. Through Lane Holmes (01234 327744) Pounds 325,000: character cottage on the edge of Kempston. Three bedrooms, gardens, off-road parking. Lane Holmes (as before) Pounds 154,950: Slate Road, The Green, Souldrop. Two bedrooms, with gardens in an attractive terrace. Through Lane Homes (as before) Pounds 590,000: Dukes Cottage, Oakley, with four bedrooms, plus a one-bedroom detached annexe and garage. Taylors (as before) Vital statistics

Local councils and council tax: Bedfordshire County Council (01234 363222) and Mid-Beds District Council (01525 402051) charge Pounds 2,647 a year for the highest H-band house, and Pounds 882 for properties in the lowest A-band.

House prices: Detached houses average Pounds 295,503 (Land Registry, June 2005), with a terrace house costing Pounds 147,635. Bedford is set to expand by 16,000 new homes over the next 10 years.

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