Homes to Rent and Buy in Stewartby

Stewartby is about five miles south-west of Bedford, and it’s unlike anywhere else nearby. It was built from 1926 as a model village for workers at the London Brick Company, laid out on garden city lines, and renamed after the company’s chairman in the 1930s. The brickworks was once the biggest in the world by output; it closed in 2008, and its four famous chimneys came down in 2021. The original village is a conservation area.

There’s no pub, but the Stewartby Club, the old brickworks club, is open to anyone for a small yearly membership and has been named CAMRA’s local club of the year more than once. Stewartby Stores has the post office. Stewartby Lake is home to a water sports club, and the Millennium Country Park is close by.

Getting about is easy. Stewartby station is on the Marston Vale line, with hourly trains to Bedford and Bletchley from Monday to Saturday, and the 68 bus runs to Bedford and Ampthill. Schools here are being reorganised, with a new Stewartby Primary School due in 2027 and Kimberley College for sixth form.

Big changes are coming. The old brickworks site is being redeveloped, starting with 750 homes at Hanson’s Reach, and Universal has bought land there for a proposed theme park and resort. Worth bearing in mind if you’re buying for the long term.