Kempston Rural

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Kempston Rural
Kempston Rural shown within Bedfordshire
Population	1,286 ^[1]
OS grid reference	TL015479
District	Bedford
Shire county	Bedfordshire
Region	East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BEDFORD
Postcode district	MK43
Dialling code	01234
Police	Bedfordshire
Fire	Bedfordshire and Luton
Ambulance	East of England
European Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	Mid Bedfordshire
List of places: UK • England • Bedfordshire

Coordinates: 52°07′12″N 0°30′60″W / 52.120116, -0.516613

Kempston Rural is a civil parish in the Bedford district of Bedfordshire, England.

Kempston Rural was formed in 1896 when the old parish of Kempston was split into two parts - Kempston urban district (now the town of Kempston), and Kempston Rural parish.

Historically Kempston was a large but lightly populated parish, with a decentralised population pattern. The typical parish in pre-Industrial England had one main village, perhaps complemented by a few hamlets, but in Kempston the settlement around the church - Church End - has never has more than a dozen or so houses, so it has never dominated the parish. When urban growth arrived in Kempston in the 19th century it was concentrated in the eastern parts of the parish, around the neighbouring ends of East End and Up End (ie. the area around the High Street and St John Street) and Kempston New Town, close to the boundary of Bedford.

Kempston Rural is to the west of the town of Kempston, and comprises approximately the western half of the historical ecclesiastical parish of Kempston. The parish includes the small hamlets ("ends" in local parlance) of Box End, Church End, Gibraltar, Green End, West End, and Wood End. These five ends each have a dozen or more houses, up to a hundred or so. The narrow south western extension of the parish was once known as Bourne End or Kempston Bourne, but the hamlet is now represented only by Meadow Farm. Other semi-forgotten "ends" in Kempston Rural - now represented by just a house or two - include Crow End and Littleworth End, in the Western part of the parish, and Moor End and Mill End, both of which lie to the north of Box End, towards Bromham.

Not all of "rural" Kempston is in Kempston Rural: there is one "end" of the old parish - Kempston Hardwick - which is in a rural location, yet is within the boundaries of the Kempston Urban, and the rural land either side of Ridge Road at the Bury and Bell End Farm, is also in Kempston Urban.

For local election purposes Kempston Rural is in Turvey Ward, which also includes the civil parishes of Stagsden and Turvey.

All Saint's Church at Church End, was originally the parish church for the whole of Kempston, and is the most notable historical building in either part of Kempston.