Houghton Regis
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Houghton Regis is a town sandwiched between the major towns of Luton to the east and Dunstable to the west. The parish includes the ancient hamlets of Bidwell, Thorn and Sewell.
Bordered by the Chiltern Hills, the town was once a charming small village that had its character ruined when it was earmarked for a massive "London Overspill" estate in the 1950s and 60s. The only remains of the areas around the small village centre are names such as Tithe Farm Road. An indication of the planners' attempts to make the London migrants feel at home is the naming of the local estate roads after London landmarks; Chelsea Gardens is an example. The town lacks identity due to being dwarfed by its much larger neighbours, becoming just a suburb.
The town council pays around £35,000 each year for patrols by a private security firm. The police state that the crime rate is at its lowest since 1981.[1]
Remnants of the town's past are still apparent with, for example, the fifteenth century Parish Church of All Saints (formerly St Michaels) with an excellent example of a Norman tower and the former Squire's residence of Houghton Hall, built in the eighteenth century.
Between the town centre and Dunstable there is the Townsend Industrial Estate.
A celebrity link is that the actor Gary Cooper used to live in the town when a young man.
[edit] References
- ^ "Is the private security idea good value?", Dunstable Gazette, 8 November 2006, page 9.
[edit] External links
