Bedford was perhaps best known for his work in the Mid Glamorgan area of South Wales, but he did not move there directly from his native Birmingham.
He remained there until 1770 when he bought a 80-acre (320,000 m2) estate in Cefn Cribwr, near Bridgend, where he planned to establish not only an iron works, complete with blast furnace and forge, but also the collieries, brickworks, mines and stone quarries to support it.
Bedford, it seems, brought a sum of £36,000 to fund this venture and was possibly attracted to the area by the availability of local raw materials and its proximity to the sea via the harbor town of Porthcawl.
[1] The venture failed to reach its full potential due to a number of factors, which included John Bedford's own eccentricity, the geographic position of the iron works, his reliance on borrowing and his lack of business acumen.
His correspondence indicates that he was more interested in experimentation and development of the iron making techniques than running a viable business.