Page "Kempston" Paragraph 40

Kempston's main park is Addison Howard Park, which is part of the grounds of Grange House, once one of the principal residences in the parish, which survives as flats.

This estate was owned in the 1880s by the Howard family ( ancestors of the randlord Sir George Herbert Farrar Bt and the current Earl of Lonsdale ) proprietors of the Britannia Iron Works in Bedford ( opposite Bedford Hospital, and also known as George Fisher Castings, before its closure and demolition in the late 20th century ).

Scions of the Howard family were also settled at the nearby estates of Clapham Park and Biddenham Manor.

Grange House was later donated by the Kempston branch of the Howard family to the people of Kempston.

There is an indoor swimming pool which opened in the 1980s.

Kempston's Sainsbury's supermarket was the chain's largest branch when it opened in the 1970s.

The headquarters of the Bedfordshire Police are in Kempston.