Walking the sleepy and calm streets of Bedford or looking out from your lovely Park Homes Bedfordshire site, you’d be hard pressed to imagine that the town was once the site of great conflict in England’s early history. Bedford was a border town, despite the fact that it is in the middle of the UK, and it has consistently found itself changing hands down through the early centuries. The town was founded next to the River Ouse. It could be easily fed by the fertile farmlands around it. This made it a target. It was created by the Angles as a centre on the borders with the Romano-Britons. This is where the first conflict is recorded from the Dark Ages. The Angles Chief Cuthwulf wins a great battle against the Romano-Britons establishing his people in the area. The town remains on the border between the two.
In the later Dark Ages the Romano-Britons were pushed into Wales and Cornwall and the town is part of the large Kingdom of Mercia. This remains the case until the arrival of the Danes in greater numbers. Bedford finds itself right on the border between Mercia and the Danelaw.
This is a great swathe of the East of England that is controlled, under agreement with the invaders and settlers. The Anglo-Saxons find themselves in the same position as the Romano-Britons. They build a large fortress at Bedford but it does not work and it is destroyed by the Danes.
