By popular demand, back again for Heritage Weekend, is Jo Roberts, to lead her fascinating walk about some of the magnificent trees in the cemetery.

Following his excellent talk last year on the history of the Government Code and Cypher School and Bletchley Park as its WWII war station, Mike Barbakoff returns with a remarkable story of the first Enigma Codebreakers. 

You are invited to join with Bedford Pipe Band for their Remembrance Service for all service personnel, and especially to commemorate the young men of the Highland regiments who died in Bedford from a measles epidemic whilst under training, and awaiting departure for the Front. The pipers will be present, together with representatives of the Services.

Our theme this year is Christmas memories from the past and tales of festive traditions kept by friends and families. We hope you can join us to sing carols and Christmas songs in our beautiful chapel dressed in all its Christmas finery and afterwards for cake and mulled wine. Singers from local Community Choirs led by Evelyn Sutherland will be providing an uplifting boost to the singing. Our collection this year will be for Cancer Research UK - Prostate Cancer.  Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males in the UK, and it accounts for 14% of all cancer deaths in males. Your donations will  help to fund research to  give men with  prostate cancer better survival outcomes.  

Helen Frost returns with a fascinating, thought-provoking, inspiring, funny and yet incredibly moving illustrated talk. 

Some people had a faith and some did not - so how did the men and women who served in the Great War cope with the constant mental and physical strain that years of war perpetuated?

For centuries, women were denied their democratic right to vote. Dressed as a suffragette, Eve Bacon tells the story, not only of the suffragettes, but of the wider campaign for universal suffrage.

The Annual General Meeting of the Friends will be held in the Chapel at Foster Hill Road.
All are welcome.

Kevin Varty is a regular and very popular speaker and this talk will definitely not fail to amuse and enlighten.

The Victorians had an obsession with death which is difficult for us to understand. This illustrated talk shows how overcrowded churchyards led to changes in the Burial Acts, the subsequent growth of private cemeteries and how Victoria's own private grief influenced the whole nation.

Eddie Chapman hated authority as far back as he could remember. Authority detested him back and from an early age he was always in trouble with the law.

Ruth Hogan is one of Bedford's best-selling  authors and her book, 'The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes',  includes many scenes set in our cemetery where one character walks her dog and imagines what the lives of some people buried here were like. In this walk Ruth will point out some of the graves that inspired her.