Bedfordshire

Towns & Villages

AMPTHILL

Church of St. Andrew, Ampthill - Photo: John Salmon CCL

An ancient market town with more than 200 listed buildings, including bow-fronted shops, Ampthill is now a busy commercial centre with a weekly market that has survived for an astonishing 750 years.

Katherine of Aragon lived at Ampthill Castle for two years before her divorce from Henry VIII in 1533. Although the structure fell into ruin, Charles II gave its 300-acre park to the Ashburnham family and it is now open to the public.

Nearby Houghton Hall was called 'House Beautiful' in John Bunyan's allegorical book ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ while a slope leading into Ampthill became his 'Hill of Difficulty'.
The church of St Andrew contains a monument to Richard Nicolls who, in 1664, became the first English governor of New York. The cannon ball which later killed him rests on his tomb.

Houghton Hall, Ampthill - Photo: Dennis Jackson CCL