Whipsnade

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Village in Bedfordshire, England

title: "Whipsnade" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["villages-in-bedfordshire", "civil-parishes-in-bedfordshire", "central-bedfordshire-district"] description: "Village in Bedfordshire, England" topic_path: "general/villages-in-bedfordshire" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipsnade" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Village in Bedfordshire, England ::

::data[format=table title="infobox UK place"]

Field	Value
official_name	Whipsnade
country	England
region	East of England
static_image_name	St.Mary Magdelen, Whipsnade - geograph.org.uk - 222462.jpg
static_image_caption	Church of St Mary Magdelene, Whipsnade (August 2006)
population	455
population_ref	(parish)
os_grid_reference	TL010179
coordinates
post_town	DUNSTABLE
postcode_area	LU
postcode_district	LU6
dial_code	01582
constituency_westminster	Luton South and South Bedfordshire
unitary_england	Central Bedfordshire
lieutenancy_england	Bedfordshire
::

Whipsnade is a small village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, about 2 + 1/2 mi south-south-west of Dunstable on the top of the Dunstable Downs, which drop away steeply to the south of the village.

Etymology

Whipsnade is a compound of the Anglo-Saxon personal name, Wibba, with the word "snæd", an area of woodland. Therefore, the name means "Wibba's wood". A variation may be seen as "Wystnade" in a legal record of 1460, where named people in Dunstable were accused of trespassing.

History

The village was first mentioned in a coroner's roll of 1274 when Whipsnade Wood was described as being within the parish of Houghton Regis.

Edward John Eyre, explorer of Australia, was born in Whipsnade in 1815.

The parish of Whipsnade used to have a detached part at Ballingdon Bottom, which formed an exclave of Bedfordshire, surrounded by Hertfordshire. The county boundary was changed in 1844, transferring Ballingdon Bottom to Hertfordshire. For parish purposes, it remained a detached part of Whipsnade. When district councils were established in 1894, the main part of Whipsnade parish was included in the Luton Rural District in Bedfordshire, whilst Ballingdon Bottom became part of the Markyate Rural District in Hertfordshire. The parish boundaries were rationalised in 1897 when Ballingdon Bottom was transferred to the parish of Flamstead.

In the 2021 census, the population of Whipsnade was 455.

Landmarks

Whipsnade is home to Whipsnade Tree Cathedral, a 9 + 1/2 acre arboretum planted in the arrangement of a cathedral, and Whipsnade Zoo.

A chalk hill figure of a lion can be found on Bison Hill, created in 1933; it is owned by the zoo. It is the longest hill figure in England at 483 ft. During the Second World War, the lion was covered with a black tarp to prevent German bomber planes from using it for navigation.

Whipsnade Park Golf Club is also in the vicinity, though it is actually in neighbouring Dagnall, Buckinghamshire.

The local Wildlife Trust manages a small nature reserve north of the village called Sallowsprings ().

Education

In previous eras Whipsnade was included in a zone with priority admissions for a middle school, but this was no longer the case as of 2025.

References

ONS, [https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2021_pp Census 2021 Parish Profiles]
"The Parish of Whipsnade in General". Bedford Borough Council.
first entry in http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no799/aCP40no799fronts/IMG_0332.htm
"Old Hunters Lodge Hotel: The Cross Roads, Whipsnade". Bedford Borough Council.
"Eyre, Edward John (1815–1901)". Australian Dictionary of Biography.
"Whipsnade Tithe Apportionment 1842{{ndash}}1844". Bedford Borough Council.
Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 61)
(1897). "Local and Personal Acts". Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
(8 May 2023). "Whipsnade Zoo's Big Help Out volunteers weed giant lion for Coronation". BBC News.
"Whipsande Park Golf Club". Whipsnade Park Golf Club.
"Sallowsprings". Bedfordshire Cambridgeshire Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust.
"School catchment areas". Central Bedfordshire.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::