Heath and Reach is an English village and civil parish near the Chiltern Hills in Bedfordshire. It is two miles north of Leighton Buzzard and three miles south of Woburn and adjoins the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. Nearby places are Leighton-Linslade, Great Brickhill and the Duke of Bedford's Woburn Abbey, Woburn Safari Park and Woburn Golf Club.St Leonard's Church dates from the 1580s.Located 40 miles from central London, the village is 6 miles from the M1 and benefits from a non-stop fast train from nearby Leighton Buzzard to Euston in just 32 minutes.HistoryThere was a sizeable Roman settlement at Heath and Reach. Fragments of pottery, coins and traces of buildings were found in 1971 near Overend Green Farm, by the Roman road, Watling Street. The village was originally two small hamlets in the Royal Manor of Leighton and records are found for Heath in 1220 and Reach in 1216.Heath and Reach was part of the parish of Leighton and was the property of the King of England. In 1539 a Muster Roll during the reign of Henry VIII listed the fighting men of the village, those aged 16–60, as "25 males who could be relied upon to fight in Henry's wars with France and the defence of Calais."
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