Description
Luton, a municipal borough, market-town, and parish, and head of a union, petty sessional division, and county court district in Bedfordshire. The town stands on the river Lea, here only a brook, and is pleasantly situated in a valley surrounded by hills, 2 1/2 miles SE from Icknield Street, 19 SE from Bedford, and 31 from London. It is a bustling busy place, very clean, well-paved and lighted, and furnished with a good supply of water. The M.R. have a station hereon their main line from St Pancras, and there is also a station on the Hatfield and Dunstable branch of the G.N.R. The origin of its name is uncertain; it was called by the Saxons Lygetune, and is referred to in Domesday as Loitoine. The ground on which it stands was given by Offa, king of Mercia, in the 8th century to the abbey of St Albans; belonged at Domesday to the Crown; went in 1216 to Fulke de Brent, who built a castle on it; and passed to the Wenlocks. The town acquired importance in the time of James I. by being made the seat of a straw-hat manufacture -which Mary, Queen of Scots, had introduced from France; it suffered a check to its prosperity by the transference of that manufacture, in a considerable degree and for some time, to Dunstable ; it eventually recovered its status as the largest seat of that manufacture in Great Britain; and it so throve upon it that in 1876 it was incorporated as a municipal borough by charter. It is now governed by a corporation consisting of a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 common councillors, who also act as the urban sanitary authority. The borough has a commission of the peace and its own police force. Most of the town is new and of no particular interest. It consists chiefly of streets diverging from a central market-place, and has of late years been greatly extended. The principal public buildings are the Town-hall, the Corn Exchange, the Plait Hall, and the Court-house. The Town-hall stands at the junction of the Bedford and Dunstable roads, was erected in 1847, and is a plain building in the Italian style. The Corn Exchange stands on Market Hill, occupies the site of the old market-house, was erected in 1869, and is a building of red brick in the Venetian-Gothic style. The Plait Halls stand in Cheapside and Waller Street, and were built in 1869 afc a cost of about £12,000. The Court-house was built by the county, stands in Stuart Street, is used for county court and petty session business, and contains some prison cells. There are also a public library, a public park, recreation grounds, good swimming and private baths, an hospital, a children's home, and almshonses for twenty-four poor widows. The workhouse, which stands in Dunstable Road, was erected in 1836 at a cost of £4500, and is a building of brick with accommodation for 400 inmates. There are two cemeteries, one on the W side of the town, having an area of 8 acres, and a small one on the E side, with an area of about 2 1/4 acres. As already mentioned, the chief industry is the making up of straw plait into hats and bonnets. The plait at one time was made in the surrounding villages, but now is imported chiefly from China, Japan, Italy, and Germany. Efforts have been made by the technical committee of the county council to revive the local industry on a more artistic base, but at present with only partial success. The manufacture of hats and bonnets from straw, chip, and felt is now carried on in a number of small factories attached to dwelling-houses and a few of the larger buildings. The articles made are exported to all parts of the world. Iron and brass founding is also carried on. There is a weekly market for cattle, corn, and strawplait on Monday, a weekly one for provisions on Saturday, and fairs for cattle on the third Monday of April and the third Monday of Oct. There was formerly a hiring fair on the Friday after the third Monday of Sept., but this has been abolished. The town has a head post office, two banks, some good inns, and publishes three weekly newspapers. The living of the mother parish of St Mary is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; net value, £386 with residence, in the gift of the Peache Trustees. The church of St Mary, which is one of the largest parish churches in England, is an ancient and interesting cruciform building of the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, with some traces of Early English; comprises nave, aisles, transepts, and choir; has an embattled tower of flint and other stones in chequerwork 90 feet high, surmounted at the comers by hexagonal turrets; includes, in the S transept, a unique lofty stone baptistry, with groined roof and pinnacles, standing over a famous baptismal font supported by five pillars, and said to have been presented by Queen Anne Boleyn; includes also, on the N side of the chancel, an elegant chapel, built prior to 1461 by Sir John Wenlock; and contains four richly ornamented sedilia, several royal armorial bearings, several arched altar-tombs, some very ancient brasses, and a number of handsome modern monuments and cenotaphs. The ecclesiastical parish of Christchurch was formed in 1861. The living is a vicarage of the net value of £174 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Ely. The church, built in 1856, and enlarged in 1864 and 1882, is a building of red brick with dressings of stone. The ecclesiastical parish of St Matthew, Hightown, was formed in 1875. The living is a vicarage of the net value of £210 with residence, in the gift of the Church Patronage Society. The vicarage of St Saviour was formed in 1892 out of the parish of Christchurch. The living is a vicarage of the net value of £150, in the gift of the Bishop of Ely. The church is only temporary. The vicarage of St Andrew, Woodside, is a new parish, formed out of Cadding-ton and some of the neighbouring hamlets. There are also four Baptist chapels, a Congregational chapel, a Friends' meeting-house, two Primitive Methodist chapels, a Roman Catholic church, a Union chapel, four Wesleyan chapels, and a Christian mission-hall. Nearly opposite the old church in Church Street stands an old chapel erected in 1778 and presented to John Wesley, who preached here on the occasion of his last visit to Luton in 1785. The area of the borough is 2613 acres; population, 30,006; area of the civil parish, 15,375 acres of land and 60 of water; population, 32,401; of the ecclesiastical parish of St Mary, 10,807; of Christchurch, 11,857; of St Matthew, 7432.
Limbury-cum-Biscot is a hamlet of Luton about 2 1/2 miles NW. (See LIMBURY-CUM-BISCOT.)
The hamlet of Leagrave is about 3 miles NW of Luton. It has a station on the M.R., and a Primitive Methodist chapel. The river Lea rises in Leagrave Marsh, West Hyde is a hamlet adjoining Luton, the greater part being in the borough. The ecclesiastical parishes of East Hyde and Stopsley are noticed separately. Luton Hoo is a fine mansion standing in a beautiful park of 1670 acres, through which flows the river Lea, which expands into two large lakes. It was built by the Earl of Bute, prime minister of George III., was almost destroyed by fire in 1843, passed subsequently to John Shaw Leigh, Esq., by whom it was completely restored, and is now the property of his widow, Madame de Falbe. Stockwood, a fine brick mansion erected in 1740, standing in a beautiful park and commanding pleasanfe 1/2views, belongs to the Crawleys.
Luton Parliamentary Division, or Southern Bedfordshire, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 68,224. The division includes the following:- Ampthill (part of)-Flitton, Flitwick, Gravenhnrst (Upper), Gravenhurst (Lower), Higham Gobion, Pulloxhill, Shitlington, Silsoe, Steppingley, Westoning; Leighton Buzzard-Billington, Eaton Bray, Egginton, Heath and Reach, Leighton Buzzard,Stanbridge; Luton-Barton, Caddington, Dunstable, Houghton Begis, Humbershoe, Luton, Streatley, Studham, Sundon, Tottenhoe, Whipsnade; Woburn-Aspley Guise, Battlesden, Chalgrave, Eversholt, Harlington, Hockliffe, Holcut, Husborne Crawley, Muton Bryant, Potsgrove, Ridgmont, Salford, Tilsworth, Tingrith, Toddington, Woburn; Dunstable, municipal borough; Luton, municipal borough.
