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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.

Taken in the famous J Block, sited on the original location of the first Vauxhall production facility in Luton, this photograph shows Vauxhall Wyverns nearing the end of the assembly line.

Luton has its parks to remind us of how great houses and landowners gave way to the needs of the many, with great estates being turned over to the people.

Luton developed rapidly in the late 1950s and gathered many of the outlying villages into an expanded borough.

With a gorse-clad common, walks through fields and woods and a car factory just up the road in Luton, what better place for a dream come true?

The fine avenue of box trees was removed - box wood was in great demand by the Luton hat makers for use as blocking moulds - and houses and shops were built.

Students of automobilia will have pleasure in identifying the marques on display - certainly there are Vauxhalls from nearby Luton, one or two Morrises from Oxford and possibly some early foreign imports

'P' Block was the home of the Production Engineering Department, and was therefore seen by many as the nerve centre for car and van production in Luton.

Rising majestically over it all, Luton's Town Hall has developed 'eyebrows' - a set of semi-permanent offices on the roof of the original building to cope with an ever-increasing multitude of local government

The shops to the right show physical evidence of Luton's ability to graft 20th-century fronts onto 19th-century buildings.

In Luton they included one under shops on the east side of Park Street, and tunnels were made under Upper George Street.

With business looking good, and the founder long gone from Vauxhall's, the company sought room to expand and happened upon Luton, where the council welcomed them with open arms.

Bridge Street on the left and Gordon Street on the right-hand side were the boundaries of 'old' Luton, and the architectural changes between the 19th and 20th centuries are clearly visible.

The sign next to H A Furr's confectionery shop advises traffic for Bedford and Luton to use Tilehouse Street, while traffic for Baldock is directed down Sun Street.

The tranquil village of Whitwell lies directly under the flightpath of aircraft landing at Luton Airport.

In 1905 The Vauxhall Iron Works moved to Luton from its London base. Thereafter it enjoyed some considerable sporting success and built cars for the wealthy and influential.

Wellington Street was also the site of Luton's first cinema, located in one of the buildings on the crest of the hill; it opened in the early 1900s.

The rear building on the hill is the famous J Block, the heart of car production and site of the first buildings erected for the company in Luton. H

In the immediate post-war era, Luton was a medium sized town - albeit a county borough - about to become very much larger.

The Plaiting School in the village employed village ladies and children who supplemented the low agricultural wages by weaving strips of straw, called plait, to the hat-making trade in Luton.

Luton's gas company made tar for airfield runways.

The Vauxhall Iron Works moved to Luton from its London base in 1905. Thereafter it enjoyed some considerable sporting success and built cars for the wealthy and influential.

In the 1800s, the villagers' income came from the straw-plaiting industry, which served the hat-making trade at Luton.

For a while old customs like the annual Co- op day parade would continue, but with Luton about to be put well and truly on the local map, even bigger changes were afoot.