There are 134 scheduled monuments in the county of Bedfordshire in the East of England.[1] These protected sites date from the Neolithic period in some cases and include barrows, churches, castle earthworks, moated sites and medieval priories.[2] In the United Kingdom, the scheduling of monuments was first initiated to ensure the preservation of "nationally important" archaeological sites or historic buildings. Protection is given to scheduled monuments under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.[3]
Image | Name | Location | Date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
All Saints Church, Segenhoe | Ridgmont | 12th century | Built in the 12th century. The church was abandoned in 1855 when a new, larger church on High Street, also named All Saints, was completed.[4][5] | |
Bedford Castle | Dunstable | after 1100 AD | A Norman motte and bailey castle built by Henry I.[6] It was built on a previous Anglo-Saxon defensive site north of the River Great Ouse.[7] | |
Dunstable Priory | Dunstable | 1131 AD | Augustinian priory established by Henry I. The annulment of Catherine of Aragon's marriage to Henry VIII was announced here in 1533.[8] | |
Flitwick Castle | Flitwick | 11th century | The earthwork remains of a medieval timber Motte-and-bailey castle. The castle was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086.[9] | |
Great Barford Bridge | Great Barford | 15th century | The bridge, built in the 15th century, crosses the River Great Ouse.[10] | |
Houghton House | Houghton Conquest | 1621 | Ruined 17th-century mansion built between 1615 and 1621 for Mary Sidney, Dowager Countess of Pembroke. Sidney hosted James I at the new completed house in 1621. She died of smallpox in London a short time later.[11] | |
Someries Castle | Luton | 15th century | Built by William de Someries on or near the location of a 13th century moated manor house. The remains of a 16th/17th century garden lie adjacent to the ruined castle.[12][13] |