Visit Tempsford Places

Welcome to Visit Tempsford Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Tempsford

  

Tempsford Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Tempsford

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Tempsford history

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Archaeological excavations carried out in Tempsford Hall park in 1999 found sherds of Roman pottery, ditches relating to middle to late Saxon enclosures and a complete Maxey ware bar-lug vessel. The village was known as Tamiseforde in the Domesday Book of 1086.

Tempsford geography / climate

Tempsford is 2.3 miles (4 km) north of Sandy, 18 miles (29 km) west of Cambridge and 46 miles (74 km) north of Central London. Tempsford has two main areas bisected by the A1 road: Church End to the west and Langford End (Station Road) to the east. Tempsford Hall and park lie between the two. The rivers Great Ouse and Ivel form a large part of the parish’s western boundary. The East Coast Main Line railway passes through the parish. Area The civil parish covers an area of 1,170 hectares (2,891 acres). Landscape The village lies within the Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Claylands as designated by Natural England. Central Bedfordshire Council has classified the local landscape around the village as the Great Ouse Clay Valley; a shallow, fairly wide valley of the Great Ouse and Ivel. The surrounding area is mostly arable farmland. Pastures are found alongside the rivers. Grass parkland surrounds Tempsford Hall and there is an area of woodland at the eastern edge of the park. Hedgerows are often gappy or lost but some hedgerow trees are present. Off the eastern bank of the Ivel at the southernmost point of the parish is a lake formed from a disused sand and gravel pit. Outlying areas to the north and east form part of the predominantly flat, Biggin Wood Clay Vale. Elevation The village centre is 24 metres (79 ft) above sea level. The whole parish is low lying and flat with the highest point just over 50 metres (164 ft) at Sir John’s Wood in the far north-east. Geology and soil type The village lies mainly on first and second terrace river gravel. Alluvium borders the Great Ouse and Ivel rivers. There are patches of boulder clay, and the eastern and northern parts of the parish are on Oxford clay overlying Kellaways beds. Around the village the soil has low fertility, is freely draining and slightly acid with a loamy texture. The eastern area of the parish has highly fertile, lime-rich loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage. By the Ivel and Great Ouse are loamy and clayey floodplain soils with naturally high groundwater. The night sky and light pollution Light pollution is the level of radiance (night lights) shining up into the night sky. The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) divides the level of night sky brightness into 9 bands with band 1 being the darkest i.e. with the lowest level of light pollution and band 9 the brightest and most polluted. Tempsford in band 6 is adversely affected by lighting along the A1 road. The built environment Along Station Road are a number of grade II listed, late 17th century, colour washed, roughcast rendered thatched cottages. Also, Victorian workers’ cottages built by the Tempsford Estate in yellow brick with red brick facing, farm houses, barns, local authority and modern private houses. At Church End the former White Hart public house dates from the 16th century and is timber framed with a jettied gable and clay tile roof. Roads and bridges The A1 northbound carriageway is carried over the Ouse by a sandstone bridge built in October 1820. Listing particulars state the bridge to be about 50 metres (164 ft) long and 10 metres (33 ft) wide. There are three broad, low arches built with blocks of Bramley Fall stone from a quarry near Leeds. A rounded towpath archway passes through the east abutment. A sandstone parapet rests on a projecting stone string course. Except where replaced by concrete, Bramley Fall stone copings run the length of the bridge. Inscriptions of masons can be seen on the inside face of the copings over the crown of the centre arch. Flood bridges to the east and west have seven smaller and lower segmental brick arches. A separate bridge was built for the southbound carriageway when the road was dualled in the early 1960s. The A1 Trunk Road (Tempsford Junction Improvements Slip Roads) Order 1999 authorised the construction of new slip roads to access the A1 and the scheme was completed in 2001. A slip road from the southbound carriageway joins the road from Little Barford, which was extended south through Tempsford Hall Park to a new roundabout. A bridge across the A1 and a second roundabout were built to access the northbound carriageway and the roads to Blunham and Church End. The road to Church End became a no through road. Public footpaths A public footpath on the eastern side of the Station Road level crossing runs south then east to Everton. A stretch of the Kingfisher Way runs from Mill Lane alongside the Ivel to Blunham. In 2001 an extensive metal footbridge over the A1 was constructed which links Station Road with the former Anchor Hotel, Memorial Hall and Church End.

You can visit Tempsford places with Walkfo Tempsford to hear history at Tempsford’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Tempsford has 17 places to visit in our interactive Tempsford map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Tempsford, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Tempsford places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Tempsford & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 17 audio facts unique to Tempsford places in an interactive Tempsford map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Tempsford Places Map
17 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Tempsford historic spots	Tempsford tourist destinations	Tempsford plaques	Tempsford geographic features
Walkfo Tempsford tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Tempsford

  

Best Tempsford places to visit

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Tempsford has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Tempsford’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Tempsford’s information audio spots:

St Denys’ Church, Little Barford St Denys’ Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Little Barford, Bedfordshire. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II* listed building. The church lies to the west of the village, overlooking the River Great Ouse.

Visit Tempsford plaques