The Parish

Maulden is a small village and civil parish located in the county of Bedfordshire, in the administrative area of Central Bedfordshire, part of the Ampthill Ward.

An active parish council meets every five weeks (10 meetings a year) on Mondays at 7.30pm at the Church Hall in Church Road. The village is located 1.5 miles east of Ampthill and about 8 miles (13 km) south of Bedford.

The village is ancient, and it is referred to in the Domesday Book as Meldone and the meanings ascribed to the various versions of the name include “cross on the hill”, “high down” and “place of meeting”. There are extensive mentions of it in national, county and local records going back to the 11th century.

Maulden Demographics

Central Bedfordshire Council publishes up-to-date information on the population of the area regularly.

The most recent report [April 2015] is here: As of that report, the village had 3,130 people living in 1,370 houses. (but that was based on the 2011 Census before some new developments were completed)

The village is growing, and there have been small recent areas of development in and around the village.

Maulden Media

For “normal news” there are local papers:

The Bedfordshire On Sunday paper was closed by its owner Trinity Mirror in September 2017, its website was Bedfordshire on Sunday. A final editorial was published a week before closing Beds On Sunday Final Editorial – unedited version

There are some smaller local papers and magazines as well

Maulden Social Media

For more news, the village has a social media presence on various platforms

Our Neighbours

Ampthill has a great web presence at Ampthill.info 
Clophill has The Clophill Grapevine Facebook group with 1000+ members

Maulden and its environment

Greensand Ridge Path

Maulden sits in a wonderful environment, not just the active human community and agricultural area, but the woods and footpaths around it, including the nationally important Greensand Ridge Footpath which runs for around 38 miles with Maulden more or less in the middle of it.

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Church Meadow

Church Meadow is an SSSI and, while small, has an incredible richness of flora and fauna (if you get close enough to see it). The site is actively managed by a trust for diversity, and remains the gateway to Maulden Woods for many people.

Maulden Church Meadow SSSI
Maulden Church Meadow SSSI

Maulden Woods

Maulden Woods are an ancient woodland with lots of amenity [MAP] – also containing an SSSI area, the woods are actively managed for biodiversity and for timber production. They contain long fire roads and meandering footpaths, and the sudden change from softwood to mixed hardwood to open heath as you walk through is a delight at any time of year.

Maulden Woods Dark Area
Maulden Woods Dark Area

There are several volunteer groups in the area who help maintain amenity and biological reserve areas.

Duck End Nature Reserve

One such group maintains the Duck End Nature Reserve at the bottom of Moor Lane. This reserve contains the remains of Maulden Moor, which was drained and turned over to agriculture and peat cutting in the 19th century. It now comprises a mixture of grassland, scrub, marsh, man-made ponds and a spring feeding an irrigation pond. It is a valuable wet habitat now rare in Bedfordshire.

Environment - Duck End Nature Reserve Maulden
Duck End Nature Reserve Maulden