Stopsley

Luton developed rapidly in the late 1950s and gathered many of the outlying villages into an expanded borough. Comprehensive ‘bigger is better’ education styles were adopted with enthusiasm, and Stopsley was one of the first High Schools built to accommodate the new programme.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".

The photograph is of the War Memorial to the dead of both World Wars sited on the original Stopsley village green. Growth and proximity to Luton has meant that village has given way to developed suburb. The part that developers have played in the growth of the Luton conurbation is epitomised by the building in the far distance. This was the headquarters of H C Janes Limited, the major developer and builder across the whole of Bedfordshire during the 1950s and 60s. The building to the right of the picture is Stopsley Primary School.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".

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".