I lived in England’s worst county – it’s full of unique charm | UK | Travel

When it comes to lists of the best and worst places, I tend to take them with a very healthy dose of skepticism. Some lists are made on personal experience alone, which is always subjective, and some are made based on data, which doesn’t exactly give you a full picture of a place.

But I was still surprised to see a place I once happily lived in ranked at the bottom of a Telegraph article with the headline: England’s 48 counties, ranked and rated. Unsurprisingly, the usual suspects ranked at the top. In first place was Devon, closely followed by Cumbria, with North Yorkshire rounding out the top three.

I got to the bottom of the article to read: “Then there’s Bedfordshire, which is a reasonable size (477 square miles, comparable with Berkshire) but mustered just 258 points (compared with Berkshire’s 460) for last place.

“It has no World Heritage Sites, National Parks, coastline, Michelin-starred restaurants, first-rate hotels, world-class sport, RHS gardens, Dark Sky Reserves, National Trails, Ramsar sites or cathedrals.”

However, the anti-Bedfordshire writers did concede that: “Consolation is provided by nine cracking pubs, a National Landscape (the Chiltern Hills), one RSPB reserve (the Lodge, near the town of Sandy), 24 museums and galleries and a handful of National Trust and English Heritage properties.”

As someone who lived in Bedfordshire for nearly five years, it came as a surprise that it’d be right at the bottom of this kind of list. I mean, I’ve been to a lot of places in the UK, from the areas where you’re scared to walk down the street, to the downright ugly, and it never occurred to me that Bedfordshire could be the worst.

Admittedly, there is something a little dull and unsexy about Bedfordshire. It feels a little like a no man’s land between London and Cambridge, easy to ignore when you’re passing through it on the train. If I hadn’t lived there for a while, I don’t think I would have found many reasons to step into its borders.

But despite the fact that it doesn’t have places certified as World Heritage or winning arbitrary titles, that doesn’t mean we sat at home bored. I lived near RSPB The Lodge, which the article mentioned, and it has about 5-miles of walking trails taking you through woodlands, heathland, and long grasses. Even driving past it in the mornings, I’d see a variety of beautiful birds swooping overhead.

We’d often head for an afternoon at Dunstable Downs and the Whipsnade Estate, the former offering steep slopes with sweeping views across the Chiltern Hills. It’s the highest point in the county, which has made it a hugely popular spot for kite flying. Our dog spent many happy hours chasing butterflies through the tall grass, and the kids loved spotting the Whipsnade White Lion, a huge chalk figure carved into one of the hillsides.

There are also a number of stunning country estates and manor houses to explore. I loved it when my GPS would take me home through Woburn, as you’d drive through the deer park and see the creatures frolicking. Even though I always had my foot braced to brake suddenly for the skittish deer who’d dash across the road. Wrest Park was also a charming day out. This 19th-century French chateau-style mansion is an English Heritage site, and its ornate architecture has made it a filming location for Bridgerton. There are vast formal gardens that take inspiration from around the world, and wandering around really does make you feel like you’re starring in a period drama.

Aside from wholesome family days out and historic fantasies, Bedfordshire has some beautiful towns and villages. Ampthill is a pretty market town with Georgian architecture, while Leighton Buzzard has canalfront walks and a quaint heritage railway where we once took a train to see Father Christmas. And then there’s Bedford, a bit grey and utilitarian, I must admit, although the shopping is handy. Visit the Panacea Society if you enjoy a quirky story. It’s based on Bedford’s Panacea Society, which believed that the town was the site of the Garden of Eden. It’s bonkers in a charming way.

And if that doesn’t convince you to visit, you might be lured in by the appeal of a local food, the Bedfordshire clanger. A long pastry with a suet dough, these pastries look like giant sausage rolls on the outside, while inside one end has a savoury filling such as beef or minced pork, the other end is sweet and is your pudding, with fillings like stewed apples or plums. They are one of those British foods that are both glorious and terrible. You’re happy to see them sold in bakeries and yet never actually buy one.

I could easily fill the page with things I enjoyed about Bedfordshire, and probably would have lived there longer had we not moved for family reasons. But the point is, a place being ranked low, especially when it’s based on the number of World Heritage Sites and Michelin-starred restaurants, isn’t always the best representation of it. These honours don’t always guarantee a good time.

So, come to Bedfordshire. If you hate it, you can always make a dash for the border and escape to Hertfordshire or Cambridgeshire. Now there’s a slogan for its tourist board.

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