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Bedford was founded in 1854 on a portion of the farm Maastroom which was the property of the Lieutenant Governor of the Cape, Sir Andries Stockenström who named the town after his friend the Duke of Bedford.

The town is situated at the foot of the well forested Kaga Mountain It is in the centre of a pastoral farming and Game Hunting area.

Sir Andries Stockenström was well known for his sympathies for the indigenous peoples of the area and possibly it was for this reason that his house and its famous library were burned to the ground during the War of Mlanjeni by British and Colonial soldiers.

The area was also where the Scottish Settlers of 1820 settled, amongst them Thomas Pringle who began the fight for press freedom in South Africa and later began South Africa’s first independent newspaper.