Editing Luton (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Luton}}

Luton is believed to have been founded by the [[Anglo-Saxons]] sometime in the 6th century.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.localhistories.org/luton.html |title= Early history of Luton|website=Localhistories.org|access-date= 16 June 2008}}</ref> Its name first appears in the 8th century as ''Lygetun'', meaning "town on the River Lea".<ref>{{cite book |last=Ekwall |first=Eilert |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names |date=1947 |location=Oxford |publisher=The Clarendon Press |page=293 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.184064/page/n338}}</ref>

The [[Domesday Book]] records Luton as ''Loitone'' and as ''Lintone''.<ref name="domesday" /> Agriculture dominated the local economy at that time, and the town's population was around 700 to 800.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.localhistories.org/luton.html|title=A History of Luton|website=Localhistories.org|date=14 March 2021}}</ref> 
[[File:StMarysLuton.jpg|thumb|right|[[St Marys (Luton)|St Mary's Church]], Luton town centre]]
[[File:Wenlock chapel, Luton.jpg|thumb|right|The Wenlock chapel within St Mary's]]
 
In 1121 [[Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester]] started work on [[St Mary's (Luton)|St Mary's Church]] in the centre of the town. The work was completed by 1137.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://stmarysluton.org/page2.html |title= History of St Mary's Church |access-date= 16 June 2008 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080628044417/http://stmarysluton.org/page2.html |archive-date= 28 June 2008 }}</ref> A [[motte-and-bailey]] castle which gives its name to the modern Castle Street was built in 1139 but demolished by 1154.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shoutluton.com/page8.html |title=Luton Castle only lasted 15 years |access-date=16 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101084952/http://www.shoutluton.com/page8.html |archive-date=1 January 2011 }}</ref>

The [[hat|hat making]] industry began in the 17th century and became synonymous with the town.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk/webingres/luton/0.local/hat_plaiting.htm |publisher=Luton Libraries |work=Plaiting and Straw Hat Making |title=A history hat making in Luton |access-date=18 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527182358/http://www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk/webingres/luton/0.local/hat_plaiting.htm |archive-date=27 May 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/hat-industry-luton-buildings/hat-industry-luton-and-buildings/|title=The Hat Industry of Luton and its Buildings|website=English Heritage|quote=Long before it became associated with motor cars, Luton was well established as an international centre of hat making. More specifically, Luton was the main centre of ladies' hat production in the UK for over 200 years ... This success was founded on the earlier regional industry of straw plaiting, an occupation that was well established by the late 17th century}}</ref>

[[File:11 to 19 George Street, Luton.jpg|thumb|left|A row of largely Grade II listed buildings in George Street West, Luton]]

The town grew: in 1801 the population was 3,095,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.localhistories.org/luton.html|title=Population figures for 1801, 1901 and 1901 |access-date=16 June 2008}}</ref> but by 1850 it was over 10,000 and by 1901 it was almost 39,000.

Newspaper printing arrived in the town in 1854. The first public cemetery was opened in the same year and Luton was made a [[borough]] in 1876.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.localhistories.org/luton.html|title=Luton was made a borough|access-date=16 June 2008}}</ref>

Luton's [[Hatmaking|hat trade]] reached its peak in the 1930s,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://content.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/hat-industry-luton-buildings/hat-industry-luton-and-buildings.pdf/|title=The Hat Industry of Luton and its Buildings|date=2013|publisher=Historic England|access-date=23 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180124135612/https://content.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/hat-industry-luton-buildings/hat-industry-luton-and-buildings.pdf/|archive-date=24 January 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> but severely declined after the Second World War and was replaced by other industries.

In 1907, [[Vauxhall Motors]] opened the largest car plant in the United Kingdom in Luton, during the [[Second World War]], it built [[Churchill tank]]s<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/peoples_war/vauxhall_tanks.shtml |title=Churchill Tanks at Vauxhall |publisher=BBC |access-date=17 March 2013}}</ref> as part of the [[war effort]]. Despite heavy camouflage, the factory made Luton a target for the [[Luftwaffe]] and the town suffered a number of [[Strategic bombing|air raid]]s. 107 died<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.localhistories.org/luton.html |title=Deaths during WWII |website=Localhistories.org |access-date=17 March 2013}}</ref> and there was extensive damage to the town (over 1,500 homes were damaged or destroyed).

[[File:LutonTownHallOld.JPG|thumb|left|The first [[Luton Town Hall|town hall]] was destroyed in 1919]]
The original town hall was destroyed in 1919 during Peace Day celebrations at the end of the [[First World War]]. Dr. John G. Dony, author of ''The Flora of Bedfordshire'',<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/170088|title=Flora of Bedfordshire by John G. Dony|first=Jean|last=Langenheim|date=4 May 1954|journal=Madroño; a West American journal of botany.|volume=12|pages=223}}</ref> told his history students (he taught at Luton Grammar, predecessor of [[Luton Sixth Form College]]) in the 1950s that he had broken the last intact window of the old town hall during the 1919 riots. Local people, including many ex-servicemen, were unhappy with unemployment and had been refused the use of a local park to hold celebratory events. They stormed the town hall, setting it alight (''see [[Luton Town Hall]]''). A replacement building was completed in 1936.

Luton Borough Corporation had provided the borough with electricity since the early twentieth century from [[Luton power station]], located adjacent to the railway. Upon [[Nationalization|nationalisation]] of the electricity industry in 1948 ownership passed to the [[British Electricity Authority]] and later to the [[Central Electricity Generating Board]]. Electricity connections to the [[National Grid (Great Britain)|national grid]] rendered the 23 [[Watt|megawatt]] (MW) coal and latterly oil-fired power station redundant. The station had a single chimney and two reinforced concrete cooling towers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://twitter.com/ltfc_1885/status/730868016032944128|title=Luton town centre with the old cooling towers|date=12 May 2016|via=Twitter|access-date=3 February 2020}}</ref> The power station closed in 1968; in its final year of operation it delivered 3,192 [[Kilowatt hour|MWh]] of electricity to the borough.<ref>''CEGB Statistical Yearbook 1968'', CEGB, London</ref>

[[London Luton Airport|Luton Airport]] opened in 1938, owned and operated by the council. It is now one of the largest employers in the area.

The pre-war years, were something of an economic boom for Luton, as new industries grew and prospered. New private and [[council housing]] was built in the 1920s and 1930s, with Luton starting to incorporate nearby villages [[Leagrave]], [[Limbury]] and [[Stopsley]] between 1928 and 1933.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.localhistories.org/luton.html |title=A History of Luton |website=Localhistories.org |access-date=17 March 2013}}</ref>

Post-war, a number of substantial estates of [[Council house|council housing]] were built, notably at [[Farley Hill, Bedfordshire|Farley Hill]], [[Stopsley]], [[Limbury]], [[Marsh Farm]] and [[Leagrave]] ([[Hockwell Ring]]). The [[Marsh Farm]] area of the town was developed in the mid to late 1960s as a large council housing estate, mostly to house the overspill population from [[London]]. However, the estate gained a reputation for high levels of crime, poverty and unemployment, which culminated in a riot on the estate in July 1992 and another more serious riot three years later.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/extra-police-sent-to-riothit-estate-1590326.html|title=Extra police sent to riot-hit estate|date=23 October 2011|website=The Independent}}</ref>

The partial closure of the Vauxhall manufacturing plant in 2002 had negative effects for Luton, leading to increased unemployment and deprivation.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/immigrants-who-voted-for-brexit-luton-migration/ |title=Meet the immigrants who voted for Brexit |date=25 August 2016|work=POLITICO}}</ref> In 2024, [[Stellantis]] (owner of the Vauxhall marque) announced plans to close its operation in Luton.<ref>{{cite news |publisher=BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0mze2njvr4o |title=Vauxhall workers tell of surprise at closure plans | date=28 November 2024}}</ref>