The Bedford Urban Area which includes Kempston, Elstow and Biddenham forms the 71st largest Urban Area in the UK with a population of 101, 928.

In 1896 the parish was divided into Kempston Urban District 1, 255 acres ( 5. 1 km² ) and the civil parish of Kempston Rural 3, 770 acres ( 15 km² ).

In 1974 Kempston Urban District was abolished and Kempston reverted to being a civil parish, in the Borough of Bedford but with a separate town council with minor powers.

< tr >< th > Year < th > Kempston Urban < th > Kempston Rural < th > Total

Note 2: The 2001 Kempston Urban figure is the combined total for the three urban wards of Kempston East, Kempston North and Kempston South.

* Kempston Urban District ( created 1896 )

Sessions was born in Largs, and spent some of his earliest years in Kempston, Bedfordshire and St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Until the 19th century Kempston was a mainly rural parish.

Construction was slow at first, but the new district soon began to expand steadily and Kempston acquired a more urban feel.

Kempston Rural was three times larger, but remained sparsely populated.

Kempston was recorded as " camestone " in the Domesday Book and had a 6th-century Anglo Saxon burial site, now home to the Saxon Centre.

For many centuries, All Saints ' Church in Church End, which was first Catholic and later Anglican, was the only place of worship in Kempston.

The burgeoning population of Kempston New Town was served by St Stephen's, a temporary iron church in Spring Road which was built in 1888.

Kempston East Methodist Church in Bedford Road was opened in 1904 to serve the new parts of Kempston in the direction of Bedford.

Kempston abuts both John Bunyan's home parish of Elstow and Bedford, where he was imprisoned.

The first Congregationalist church building in Kempston was opened in the High Street in 1813.

A replacement church was built in Kempston New town in 1871.

The first resident Catholic priest in Kempston was appointed in 1965 and the present small and plain Catholic church in Bedford Road was built at around this time.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was first introduced in Bedford and Kempston by a missionary called Willard Richards on the 1st August 1837.

The plot was previously the location of the Kempston Liberal Club.

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

Its headquarters are based in Kempston, Bedfordshire.

Kempston was based in Kempston, Bedfordshire, England.

In 1870 developers began to attempt to develop land on the road from Kempston to Bedford under the name " Kempston New Town ".

The modern Kempston West Methodist Church now stands on the site.

The Bedford Southern Bypass on the A421, was constructed in the 1990s and links with the Kempston relief road, built in the 1980s.

In December 2010 work finished on construction of a new stretch of the A421 from Kempston to Junction 13 of the M1 motorway, this now provides a full dual carriageway link road between the A1 and the M1.

BBC Three Counties Radio broadcasts on 90. 4FM ( Epping Green, near Hertford ), 92. 1FM ( Bedmond, near Hemel Hempstead ), 94. 7FM ( Quainton Hill, near Aylesbury ), 95. 5FM ( Sandy Heath ), 98. 0FM ( High Wycombe ), 103. 8FM ( Zouches Farm, near Luton ), 104. 5FM ( Bow Brickhill, near Milton Keynes ), 630kHz MW ( Lewsey Farm, near Luton ), 1161kHz ( Kempston, near Bedford ), and streaming from the BBC 3CR website.

Hastingsbury Business & Enterprise College ( formerly Hastingsbury Upper School and Community College ) is a coeducational upper school for 13-18 year olds, located on Hill Rise in Kempston, Bedfordshire, England.

* Possible plans to build another 1000 houses on fields located on the road between the village and Kempston.

The Kempston Interface, produced by Kempston Micro Electronics, was the generic name for any interface on Sinclair's ZX Spectrum series of computers that allowed joysticks complying with the de facto Atari 2600 standard to be used with the machine.

Problems had also been reported with the Kempston Interface breaking down on the newer models and it faded slowly into obscurity, although the option to use Kempston joysticks remained in games until the end of the computer's shelf life.

Kempston Hardwick is a small village on the edge of the town of Kempston in Bedfordshire, England.

For borough election purposes the town is divided into three wards called Kempston North, Kempston East and Kempston South.

* Brickhill, Castle, Cauldwell, De Parys, Goldington, Harpur, Kempston East, Kempston North, Kempston South, Kingsbrook, Newnham, Putnoe, Queens Park.

Church End, with its original parish church, remains a small hamlet in the rural part of Kempston.

Church End Lower School serves Kempston Rural.

The road cuts through Kempston Rural, crossing the Great Ouse between the urban area and Church End.

Up until the Second World War Roman Catholics who lived in Kempston were obliged to worship at a church in Bedford.

* 8000 Years: A Kempston History edited by HA Carnell, T Booth and HG Tibutt ( 1966 ) Reprinted by Kempston Town Council 1985.

* 1: Bedford Rd, Kempston, Town Centre