Biggleswade ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Central Bedfordshire in Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the River Ivel, 11 miles (18 km) south-east of Bedford. Its population was 16,551 in the 2011 United Kingdom census, and its estimated population in mid-2019 had increased to 21,700, its growth encouraged by good road and rail links to London. The King's Reach development, begun in 2010, will provide 2,000 new homes to the east of the town.
Highlights
Evidence of settlement in the area goes back to the Neolithic period, but it is likely that the town as such was founded by Anglo-Saxons. A gold Anglo-Saxon coin was found on a footpath beside the River Ivel in 2001. The British Museum bought the coin in February 2006 and at the time, it was the most expensive British coin purchased. A charter to hold a market was granted by King John in the 13th-century. In 1785 a great fire devastated the town. The Great North Road passed through until a bypass was completed in 1961. A railway station was opened in 1850. From the 1930s to the late 1990s, manufacturing provided a significant amount of employment. The town centre is designated as a conservation area.
Geography
Biggleswade lies about 40 miles (60 km) north of Central London and 20 miles (30 km) west-south-west of Cambridge. Biggleswade civil parish includes the nearby hamlet of Holme. From Biggleswade station on the East Coast Main Line trains take about 45 minutes to reach London. The A1, Britain's Great North Road, bypasses the town; its old course is numbered A6001. The B1040 road leads north to Potton and St. Ives and the B659 south to Langford and Henlow.
Elevation
The town centre is about 28 m (92 ft) above sea level. The land rises to 78 m (256 ft) at the parish's southern boundary near the water tower on Topler's Hill.
Soil and geology
The area's soil is mostly freely draining and slightly acid, but with a base-rich, loamy texture of sand, silt and clay particles. Fertility is high.
The underlying geology of the Ivel Valley is alluvial. The town centre stands largely on river gravel but with smaller areas of green and brown sands and sandstones, and glacial gravel. Boulder clay dominates the outlying southern and eastern parts.
Landscape
Biggleswade Common is an area of grassland that extends northwards along the eastern bank of the River Ivel from the Shortmead Street bridge. It continues clockwise, crossing Potton Road at the town's eastern boundary to a section known locally as the Pastures. Its 300 acres (120 ha) make it the largest area of common land in Bedfordshire. It has loamy and sandy soils with naturally high groundwater and a peaty surface. It is run by an association of rights owners called the Fen Reeves of Biggleswade Common, as a working common grazed by horses and cattle.
There is a wind farm of ten turbines to the south of the town. A solar power farm is located to the north of Shortmead House.
River Ivel
The Environment Agency has a monitoring station at Biggleswade. The normal level of the River Ivel at Biggleswade is between and . The highest level recorded was reached on Wednesday 11 February 2009.
Governance
Biggleswade was a constituent part of and gave its name to one of the Hundreds of Bedfordshire from Anglo-Saxon times until the 19th century. From 1892 the town was governed by a Local Board, which became Biggleswade Urban District under the Local Government Act 1894. This council met at Biggleswade Town Hall until 1926, then shared other premises in the town before acquiring Stratton House in 1952. The Urban District Council was abolished in 1974 when most of its functions were subsumed into Mid Bedfordshire District Council under the Local Government Act 1972, the remainder passing to the newly formed Biggleswade Town Council. In 2009, the District and County Councils were replaced by the Central Bedfordshire Unitary Authority.
Biggleswade Town Council's responsibilities include car parks, allotment gardens, cemeteries (Drove Road and Stratton Way), play and recreation areas and the Orchard Community Centre. Planning applications referred from Central Bedfordshire Council are considered and objections can be raised.
Biggleswade divides into three electoral wards: Ivel for the north, Holme for the south-west, and Stratton for the south-east. Voters elect five councillors per ward, for four-year terms. They in turn elect annually a Town Mayor.
Town Council funds come from a precept agreed with Central Bedfordshire Council. Council meetings since 2006 have been held in a council chamber in the former magistrates' court in Saffron Road.