CARDINGTON, a village and a parish in the district and county of Bedford. The village stands on an affluent of the river Ouse, adjacent to the Midland railway, 2½ miles SE of Bedford; and has a station on the railway. The parish includes also the township of East Cotts. Post Town, Bedford. Acres, 5,170. Real property, £9,079. Pop., 1,419. Houses, 275. Cardington House is the seat of the Whitbreads; and was, for some years, the residence of the philanthropist Howard. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely. Value, £245.* Patron, Trinity College, Cambridge. The church is later English. There are an Independent chapel, a handsome industrial school, a British school, alms-houses with £50 a year, and other charities £28.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))