Bedford

/bed"feuhrd/, n.

1. John of Lancaster, Duke of, 1389-1435, English regent of France.

2. a city in N Texas. 20,821.

3. a city in NE Ohio, near Cleveland. 15,056.

4. a city in S Indiana. 14,410.

5. a city in NE Massachusetts. 13,067.

6. former name of North Bedfordshire.

7. Bedfordshire.

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City (pop., 1995 est.: 81,000), southeast-central England.

The administrative seat of Bedfordshire, it lies on the River Ouse northwest of London. It was a Roman fording station and a Saxon town. It was recaptured by the Anglo-Saxons from the Danes in 914. John Bunyan is thought to have written A Pilgrim's Progress while imprisoned there in the 17th century.

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▪ England, United Kingdom

      town, Bedford borough, administrative and historic county of Bedfordshire, England, in the fertile valley of the River Ouse. A Roman fording station and a Saxon town (cemetery of Kempston), it was recaptured by the Anglo-Saxon sovereign Edward the Elder (ruled 899–924) from the Danes in 914. The community became the capital of the nascent shire because of its commanding position. It received its first charter from Henry II (ruled 1154–89), and this was confirmed by successive monarchs to Charles II (ruled 1660–85).

      St. Paul's church is mainly Decorated and Perpendicular in style. The Bunyan Meeting House (1850) stands on the site of a barn in which John Bunyan (Bunyan, John) preached from 1656 onward, and the panels of the door (1876) depict scenes from his Pilgrim's Progress. (Pilgrim's Progress) The parlour is now the Bunyan Museum. The public library contains the Mott-Harrison collection of Bunyan's works, as well as other old books and pamphlets. Bunyan, who was born at Elstow (1¹/₂ miles [2.5 km] south), underwent a long but in part nominal imprisonment in Bedford. Howard House, belonging to the prison reformer John Howard, is near the Howard Congregational Church, which he helped to found in 1772. The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and the Prichard Collection in the Embankment Museum are nearby, as is the mound on which stood the Norman castle.

      Bedford is well served by rail and road. It is the centre for a large agricultural area and one of commerce and local government, serving as the county town (seat). Industries include the making of pumps, diesel engines, gas and steam turbines, agricultural implements, milling machinery, switches, tube fittings, castings, electric lamps, transistors, and confectionery. There are also wind tunnels operated by aircraft firms and complementary to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Thurleigh. Pop. (2001) 82,488.

▪ Indiana, United States

      city, seat of Lawrence county, southern Indiana, U.S., 25 miles (40 km) south of Bloomington. Founded in 1825 as the county seat and named by Joseph Rawlins for his home county of Bedford, Tennessee, it developed with the discovery of oolitic limestone in the 1830s. Bedford limestone is a highly prized building material, used to great effect in such famous buildings as the Empire State Building in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. Immense quarries and mills are characteristic of the area. The economy is augmented by aluminum processing, manufacturing (metal products, plastics, tools and machinery, and auto parts), and agriculture (cattle, grain, fruit). Bedford is the headquarters for the nearby Hoosier National Forest; Spring Mill State Park, 10 miles (16 km) southeast, has a working gristmill and a reconstructed pioneer village. Astronaut Virgil (“Gus”) Grissom grew up in the town of Mitchell, 6 miles (10 km) south. Inc. 1889. Pop. (2000) 13,768; (2005 est.) 13,551.

▪ Massachusetts, United States

      town (township), Middlesex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies near the Concord River, just northwest of Boston. Settled in 1642, it developed around an Algonquian Indian trading post called the Shawsheen House. It was incorporated in 1729 and named for Bedford, England. The Bedford flag, carried by the minutemen (people who took up arms at a “minute's notice”) on April 19, 1775, against the British at Concord Bridge, is displayed in the town library; the house of the flag carrier, Cornet Nathaniel Page, is now a historic site. Other landmarks include the Old Burying Ground, with graves of Revolutionary War soldiers, the First Parish Church (1817), and Fitch Tavern (1731).

      Bedford's economy is based on research and engineering associated with high-technology development. Major economic assets are Hanscom Air Force Base (an electronics research centre for both the military and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and the MITRE Corporation, a government-sponsored centre for the technological advancement of defense systems. The corporation's first facility in the area was opened in 1959. Other major employers are Raytheon (Raytheon Company) (defense contracting), Millipore (electronic filters), and a U.S. veterans' hospital. Area 14 square miles (36 square km). Pop. (1990) 12,996; (2000) 12,595.

▪ New York, United States

      town (township), Westchester county, southeastern New York, U.S., north of White Plains, near the Connecticut state line. Bedford Village, the original settlement, was founded in 1680 by 22 farmers from Stamford, Connecticut, on a tract known as the hop ground that was purchased from Katonah and other Wappinger Indian chiefs. Originally in Connecticut, the village was made part of New York in 1700 by royal boundary decree. During the American Revolution it was burned (1779) by British troops led by Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton. The town of Bedford, officially established in 1682, includes the hamlets of Bedford Village, Bedford Hills, and Katonah. The building of reservoirs for New York City forced the removal of Katonah to its present site (1897), changed the town's landscape, and stimulated a residential trend. The John Jay Homestead, the retirement home of John Jay (Jay, John), the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, is in Katonah. Area 37 square miles (96 square km). Pop. (1990) 16,906; (2000) 18,133.

▪ Pennsylvania, United States

 borough (town), seat (1771) of Bedford county, southern Pennsylvania, U.S., on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the Raystown Branch Juniata River, in the Allegheny Mountains, 38 miles (61 km) south of Altoona. A settlement made on the site about 1750 by John Wray (or Ray), a Scottish trader, was known as Raystown. Fort Bedford (built 1758 and apparently named for John Russell, 4th duke of Bedford (Bedford, John Russell, 4th duke of)) was a frontier rallying point and supply base for the British colonial campaign against the French Fort Duquesne (modern Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). The town of Bedford was platted in 1766. In 1794 President George Washington (Washington, George) paused there to inspect troops sent to put down the Whiskey Rebellion; Espy House, which he then occupied, has been preserved. Bedford formed the background for several of Hervey Allen's (Allen, Hervey) historical novels, notably Bedford Village (1944) and The Forest and the Fort (1943).

      The nearby resort area of Bedford Springs with its medicinal waters was used by President James Buchanan (Buchanan, James) as a summer White House. The Blue Knob ski area, Coral Caverns, and Shawnee State Park are nearby. Fort Bedford Park and Museum includes a scale model of the original fort, and Old Bedford Village has reconstructed buildings of the 1750–1850 period. Bedford's manufactures include bicycles, clothing, aerial work platforms, mining equipment, toys, and wood products. Inc. 1795. Pop. (1990) 3,137; (2000) 3,141.

▪ county, Pennsylvania, United States

      county, southern Pennsylvania, U.S., bordered to the south by Maryland and to the east by Town Hill and Rays Hill. It is a mountainous region lying mostly in the Appalachian Ridge and Valley physiographic province. Other topographic features include Wills, Evitts, Tussey, Polish, and Dunning mountains, as well as Lakes Gordon and Koon and Shawnee Lake. The county is drained by the Raystown Branch Juniata River and Yellow, Bobs, Dunning, Wills, Cove, and Evitts creeks. Parklands include Blue Knob, Shawnee, and Warriors Path state parks.

      Built in 1758, Fort Bedford was a frontier supply base for the British; the fort was later captured by American colonials (1769). The county was formed in 1771 and named for John Russell, 4th duke of Bedford (Bedford, John Russell, 4th duke of).

      The principal communities are Bedford (the county seat), Everett, Hyndman, and Bedford Springs. The primary components of the economy are tourism, manufacturing (sawmills and sporting goods), and agriculture (livestock, alfalfa, and corn [maize]). Area 1,015 square miles (2,628 square km). Pop. (2000) 49,984; (2007 est.) 49,650.

▪ district, England, United Kingdom

      borough (district), administrative county of Bedfordshire, south-central England. The borough lies almost entirely within the historic county of Bedfordshire, except for a small area northwest of Pertenhall that belongs to the historic county of Huntingdonshire. The borough of Bedford includes the large town of Bedford, the district seat, within its otherwise rural landscape. It spans a section of the winding, broad valley of the River Ouse. The clay soils of Bedford borough are used for growing a variety of agricultural products. Limestone exposed in the Great Ouse valley northwest of the town of Bedford was formerly used as building stone in the small riverside villages. Brick making is important; centred on the town of Stewartby, southwest of Bedford town, it utilizes the local heavy Oxford clays. Kempston, immediately adjacent to Bedford town, is a light industrial centre manufacturing crayons. Area 184 square miles (476 square km). Pop. (2001) 147,913.

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