Dunstable

Dunstable is a town in the county of Bedfordshire. It lies on the ancient Roman road of Watling Street, which is the modern A5 trunk road. Its name came from Anglo-Saxon Dunstaple, meaning "Hill Market". In Roman times its name was Durocobrivis. Dunstable was the site of an Eleanor cross. Geographically Dunstable lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, these spurs form several steep chalk escarpments most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north.

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Historically Dunstable was a significant market town, but its importance has diminished as the neighbouring town of Luton grew. Nowadays much of the work in Dunstable is light engineering providing automobile parts for the Vauxhall plant in Luton, but with the closure of this plant Dunstable is following Luton into decline.

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The first battles or skirmishes of the English civil war occurred in Dunstable.

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The Dunstable Priory Church of St Peter was founded in the 12th Century by Henry I and was later setting for the first ever divorce between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. This led ultimately to the seperation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church.

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Bedfordshire: Bedfordshire is a county in England. Its county town is Bedford. It borders Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire (with the Borough of Milton Keynes), and Hertfordshire. Luton was part of Bedfordshire until 1997, when it was made a unitary authority. However, it is still part of the cere...

Roman road: The Romans, for military, commercial and political reasons, became adept at constructing roads. Many long sections of them are ruler-straight, but it should not be thought that all of them were. The Roman roads were essential for the growth of their empire, by enabling them to move armies speedily...

Watling Street: Watling Street was a Roman road which went from Dover on the southeast coast of England and is generally believed to have terminated at Viroconium (now Wroxeter in Shropshire). It was also the site for the Roman victory at the Battle of Watling Street in 61 AD between the Roman governor Gaius Sueton...