Bedford means the "ford of Beda", which crossed Pennington Brook, probably near Beaston Bridge on Warrington Road.

Bedford Hall never assumed the role of a manor house and was occupied by tenants of the Kighleys who were absentee landlords.

In 1301 half of the manor was held by the Kighleys, a quarter by the Sales who lived at the moated Hopecarr Hall and the rest by John Waverton of Brick House.

Several inns were built near the junction and in 1641 there was a shop selling "cheese, gunpowder, hops, tobacco and a variety of other goods".

[3] Agriculture, fustian weaving and mining from small coal pits near the Astley and Tyldesley border were the chief occupations until the Bridgewater Canal promoted the development of industry and rapid increases in population during the 19th century.

[4] Corn mills powered by steam were built at the canal basin by Butts Bridge in 1831 to process wheat imported from the prairies of America through the Port of Liverpool.

Historically, Bedford was in the West Derby hundred, a judicial division of southwest Lancashire where the township was one of six vills that made up the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Leigh.

The township had an area of 2,826 acres, and lay partly on the new red sandstone and to the north east on the middle coal measures of the Manchester Coalfield.

They heard Mass in secret at Hopecarr, the home of the Sales or Hall House where the Jesuit fathers of Culcheth and Southworth served from the late-17th century.

The church is built of Accrington brick with Runcorn red sandstone facings, it was designed by J. S. Crowther.