Things you didn't know about... Bedfordshire

Henry VIII got a quickie divorce in Bedfordshire

Thomas Cranmer pronounced the marriage to Catherine of Aragon illegal at Dunstable Priory in 1527.

The tractor was born in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire man Dan Albone invented it in Biggleswade in 1902.

Bedfordshire residents are known as Clangers

No, not the space-dwelling creatures of the 1970s children's show—this is after the local dish, a suet crust dumpling filled with meat or jam... or both!

Bedfordshire hosts the largest one-day carnival in Europe

Luton Carnival takes place annually on the May bank holiday and attracts as many as 150,000 visitors each time.

John Bunyon wrote The Pilgrim's Progress in Bedfordshire

The seminal work was written during his 12-year internment in Bedford Gaol.

The UK's largest concentration of Italian immigrants live in Bedfordshire

It is thought that the Bedford-based London Brick Company's 1950s recruitment drives in southern Italy are the reason. Bedfordshire's Italian restaurants are widely regarded as some of the most authentic in the country.

The first ever Domino's Pizza in the UK was in Bedfordshire

The takeaway opened in 1985 in Luton and is still thriving today.

The RSPB is headquartered in Bedfordshire

Sandy in Bedfordshire is home to the charity, which started out as a protest group against the use of skins, feathers and fur.

Bedfordshire heard Hey Jude before anyone else

Paul McCartney was returning to London after a visit to Cynthia and Julian Lennon in Liverpool when he took a detour and ended up in the Bedfordshire village of Harrold. At the village pub he entertained the locals till 3 am with an impromptu singsong, debuting his new song, Hey Jude.

A Bedfordshire man is the only person to have won the Victoria Cross three times

Captain William Peel was credited with three separate "acts of gallantry" during the Crimean War. A statue now stands of him in the Bedfordshire village of Sandy.