Forty years ago Bedfordshire was famous for its market gardening. Bedfordshire onions and brussel sprouts were the best in the country. In 1969 I carried out a land use survey in East Bedfordshire. (I lived in Sandy Road, Potton at the time.) In 2009, to the day, I repeated the survey. Traditional market gardening, with its characteristic pattern of strip cultivation, had disappeared. Pasture, largely used by horses, woodland, mineral working and waste were the big gainers. A few arable farmers have survived but the cultivation of vegetables at field scale is now an activity undertaken by growers who specialise in a single crop e.g. onions or potatoes. These growers work over very large acreages, with fields scattered over many counties.