Westoning

FEW PEOPLE would be shocked by the idea of a national poll, conducted by Idler magazine, discovering that Luton was Britain’s ‘crappiest town’. Luton stands out, according to the study, because it is incredibly ugly and has a sense of neglected isolation. Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what is neglected isolation? Clearly there is some kind of insinuation that Luton is not cool, it’s not with the latest trends in ‘Cool Britannia.’ Leaders of popular culture have a stupefying arrogance, loathing any sort of individuality; they are able to dish out criticism, but not to take it. Luton is about people, whatever the buildings look like. One must admit that modern towns are unbearably look-alike, but none look like Luton. Maybe it is this uniqueness that critics cannot stand. That is not to say there are not problems here, but these are challenging times across the globe. No place is really isolated. As for neglected, that is not Luton’s fault. Like so much of the south-east, the government wants to pack the people in, but it does not want to pay the price in infrastructure. The meaning of isolation in the town’s distant past is easier to understand. Communications were slow, and neglect was not an issue. Folk just got on with the business of survival. Hunter gatherers (evidence for their presence is Worthington Smith’s discovery of Palaeolithic flint tools in the 19th century) made their home 250,000 years ago beside hillside lakes. Neolithic, or New Stone Age, men arrived from France and the Rhine, crossing the nascent channel on rafts. They brought cattle, seed corn and pottery. (Robert Cook) We are looking across Luton in its Chiltern setting from the Eaton Farm location, which became the airport.
An extract from from"Luton - A History & Celebration".

William brought with him 5,000 knights, the new aristocracy. When he died the country was still 90% Saxon; the Normans’ policy, like the Romans’, was ‘divide and rule’, with the majority of England’s two million people subject to the Norman fist. His successor, Henry II, gave the manor of Luton to his illegitimate son Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and a new church was built south of the present St Mary’s. Henry also gave land to the monks to build a hospital and chapel on Farley Hill. Another hospital, the House of God of the Virgin Mary, was founded by Thomas Beckett on a hill between the old Vauxhall car factory and Luton Airport.
An extract from from"Luton - A History & Celebration".

Contagious Diseases Acts were passed to deal with all manner of problems arising from people living in highly populated areas like Luton. Edwin Chadwick was in charge of the government campaign to sanitize towns and cities by cleaning up the water supply and trying to improve the habits of the growing populace. Religion had its own methods for cheering up the poor, but William Booth’s Salvation Army was an innovation, aiming to reach out to them by entering the dens of iniquity and trying to change lives. That was a hard task in a town facing major threats to its livelihood. Things had to change. The railways would at least make it easier for people to move elsewhere in search of a job, or vice versa if Luton’s fortune changed. The town’s two stations were built side by side, but the Bute Street link to Dunstable was closed during the short-sighted Marples era at the Transport Ministry in the 1960s - Ernest Marples employed his scientist friend Dr Beeching to take an axe to as many rail routes as possible. The consequences in traffic congestion between Luton and Dunstable are all too obvious. Non-conformist religious groups were fierce in their advocacy of total abstinence. They played a significant role in getting some of the worst local pubs closed down through (Robert Cook) The Brewery Tap dates back to the 17th century. It stood next to a tithe barn until shops were built to meet the town’s changing requirements.
An extract from from"Luton - A History & Celebration".

IN SPITE of the depression, the town’s population grew to 36,404 in 1901, and the town grew richer. The Liberal mayor Edwin Oakley, who gained office in 1891, was far- sighted; he sensed that Luton’s future and prosperity depended on new industries and better infrastructure. Rapid expansion meant that jerry-building was inevitable (it is thought that the term may derive from the poorly built walls of biblical Jericho, which were so easily knocked down by Joshua’s army); this would build up problems later on. Health problems were endemic. Although the population reached 50,000 by 1911, men’s life expectancy was only 52 years and women’s 55. Infant mortality was very high, with working parents having little knowledge of what was best for their offspring or money to make good provision for them. Typhoid, scarlet fever, whooping cough, tuberculosis and diphtheria were rife. As the population grew, so did the need for public services. Balfour’s Education Act of 1902 placed ‘board schools’ under borough or county councils (Local Education Authorities), authorizing them to establish secondary and technical schools as well as to develop the existing elementary schools. Bedfordshire County Council took over education in 1902, and it was hoped that the Higher Grade School would serve Luton’s growing needs. At the time, boys were travelling to Dunstable, Bedford and St Albans. The new Luton Modern School opened in 1908. Built on the site of the White House in Park Square, it was originally called the Edward VII School; it was renamed the Technical School in 1938. The steel magnate Andrew Carnegie added to the educational infrastructure by providing the town with a magnificent new library building in 1910 opposite the town hall at the entrance to Manchester Street.
An extract from from"Luton - A History & Celebration".

Religion had been the mainstay of lives high and low for centuries, but the industrial revolution was raising questions and creating pressures and hardships that were disturbing a long-settled order. Above all, the revolution was about new technology, and working practices were changing fast. For centuries, the church had preached that God approved the hierarchy of ‘the rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate’, but that teaching, too, would change. When Lord Bute left the Hoo, the living was sold to various patrons, who appointed a series of vicars. These included Dr Thomas Peile, who surrendered much of his income to allow new churches to be built: East Hyde in 1859, Stopsley in 1860, and Christ Church in 1860. James O’ Neill bought the living for himself when St Mary’s had become run down; he remained there for 35 years. St Mary’s had been the centrepiece of the old order, but could it remain so? At least its chequerboard walls benefited from a restoration in the 19th century. As the town continued to grow, more new churches were opened: the church at Biscot in 1866, St Matthew’s in 1875, and St Paul’s in 1892.
An extract from from"Luton - A History & Celebration".