Homes to Rent and Buy in Sharnbrook

Sharnbrook is about seven miles north of Bedford, just above a loop of the Great Ouse. It’s the biggest of the villages up this way, with nearly 2,300 people at the 2011 census, and it stretches along the High Street from south-east to north-west, with its oldest buildings at the north-west end. A lot of them are built of the local limestone, and the centre is a conservation area.

Schools are a big reason people move here. Sharnbrook Primary is on the High Street, and Sharnbrook Academy, the secondary school for the whole of north Bedfordshire, has a large sixth form. Paula Radcliffe went to school here, and the community sports centre that opened in 2005 carries her name.

The High Street has a Co-op, a deli and cafe, the Swan with Two Nicks pub and the Spice Tree restaurant. The village hall is on Lodge Road, with the playing field club next to it, and the Mill Theatre is down on Mill Road.

St Peter’s Church is Grade I listed, and Colworth House, rebuilt in the 1770s, is home to Unilever’s research centre and a growing science park. The old station closed in 1960, so trains are from Bedford, but the 25 and 50 buses run there, and the A6 is close.