Eastcotts is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and civil parish in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county

County

A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...

 of Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

.

Population

There are two main centres of population in the parish. The village of Eastcotts itself is in the southern part of the parish, but the majority of the population of the parish, which was 3,160 in 2007, lives in Shortstown

Shortstown

Shortstown is a village on the outskirts of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England.The village was originally built by Short Brothers for its workers, but evolved into a settlement for people working at the RAF Cardington base....

 in the northern part of the parish, which was built in the early 20th century to house workers from the Cardington

Cardington, Bedfordshire

Cardington is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, EnglandPart of the ancient hundred of Wixamtree, the settlement is best known in connection with the Cardington airship works founded by Short Brothers during World War I, which later became an RAF training station...

 airship works.

The population of the parish is expected to rise substantially in the near future, as planning permission for the development of 1,100 homes on the 42 hectares (103.8 acre) site of the former RAF camp in Shortstown was granted in November 2005. The parish also includes the smaller village of Cotton End

Cotton End

Cotton End is a small village located in the Eastcotts parish in Bedfordshire, England.The village contains Cotton End Lower School.-External links:...

, and the hamlets of Harrowden

Harrowden, Bedfordshire

Harrowden is a one street hamlet in the English county of Bedfordshire. The street runs from east to west parallel and to the south of the A421 Bedford Southern Bypass, and 200 metres to the north of the village of Shortstown...

 and Herrings Green

Herrings Green

Herrings Green is a hamlet located in the Bedford Borough of Bedfordshire, England.The settlement is close to Cotton End and Wilstead. Herrings Green forms part of the Eastcotts civil parish....

.

Education

A Boarding School

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 was established in the village as a result of the Elementary Education Act 1870

Elementary Education Act 1870

The Elementary Education Act 1870, commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between ages 5 and 12 in England and Wales...

. The school was built in 1874, at a cost of £1,174, for 140 children with a schoolmaster’s house attached.

External links

• Parish boundaries map from Bedford Borough Council