 The name of the town is believed to derive from the name of a Saxon chief called Beda, and a ford crossing the River Great Ouse.Bedford was a market town for the surrounding agricultural region from the early Middle Ages.The Anglo-Saxon King Offa of Mercia was buried in the town in 796; this is believed to be in his new minster, now the Church of St Paul, or on the banks of the Great Ouse where his tomb was soon lost to the river.