[2] The Countess Judith of Lens, niece of William the Conqueror, founded a Benedictine nunnery in Elstow in the year 1078.

[5][6] So large and significant was the Abbey at Elstow that, in the 16th century, Bishop Stephen Gardiner of Winchester sponsored a bill in Parliament to make it a cathedral for Bedfordshire, but this motion never received the royal assent.

[7] South of the village, a World War II munitions factory called ROF Elstow operated from 1942 to 1946, Author H.E.

[8] The village and most of the populated part of Elstow parish are located inside Bedford's southern bypass, with the hamlet of Harrowden lying just to the south-east of that road.

[10] May festivals are thought to have taken place in the village from long before the formation of the nunnery in 1078, possibly from pagan times.