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Leighton Buzzard

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Leighton Buzzard


Leighton Buzzard shown within the United Kingdom
Population	32,417^[1]
OS grid reference	SP9225
District	South Bedfordshire
Shire county	Bedfordshire
Region	East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LEIGHTON BUZZARD
Postcode district	LU7
Dialling code	01525
Police	Bedfordshire
Fire	Bedfordshire and Luton
Ambulance	East of England
European Parliament	East of England
List of places: UK • England • Bedfordshire

Coordinates: 51°55′N 0°39′W / 51.92, -0.65

"Leedon" redirects here. For the record label, see Leedon Records.

Leighton Buzzard is a town near the Chiltern Hills in Bedfordshire, and is between Luton and Milton Keynes. It adjoins Linslade and the name Leighton Buzzard is sometimes used to refer to the combination of the two towns; parts of this article also apply to Linslade.

For local government purposes, the town is part of the South Bedfordshire district and is administered jointly with Linslade as the civil parish of Leighton-Linslade^[2].

Leighton Buzzard Market Square. 19th century Town Hall (with clock tower) and the 15th century pentagonal market cross

1 History
2 Amenities
3 Schools
4 Infrastructure
5 In popular culture
6 Industry
7 Culture
8 Expansion
9 References
10 External links

There are a number of theories about its name, but the most likely is that "Leighton" is an Old English language term meaning a clearing in the woods. The "Buzzard" was added by the Dean of Lincoln in whose diocese the town was in the 12th century. He had two communities called "Leighton" and to differentiate them he added the name of his local Prebendary or representative to that of the town. At that time it was a Theobald de Busar and so over the years the town became known as Leighton Buzzard. The other Leighton became Leighton Bromswold.

Leighton Buzzard contains All Saints Church, an Early English parish church dating from 1277. The church has a 190ft spire and has been described as the cathedral of South Bedfordshire. This church suffered a large fire in the 80s, but has since undergone a full restoration.

The town is also known for the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway, a narrow gauge heritage railway^[3].

The town has a combined library and theatre (called the Library Theatre) where both live events and film screenings are regularly held ^[4].

Leighton Buzzard is represented in terms of sporting teams by Leighton Town F.C. who play football in the Southern League Division One Midlands and Leighton Buzzard R.F.C. who play Rugby Union in Midlands East Division 3. There are also both men's and women's hockey teams at Leighton Buzzard Hockey Club, the Ladies playing in Midlands Division 1.

Stockgrove Country Park is in nearby Heath and Reach.

Beaudesert Lower School - Appenine Way
Clipstone Brook Lower - Brooklands Dr
Greenleas Lower School - Derwent Rd
Dovery Down Lower School - Heath Rd
Heathwood Lower School - Heath Rd
Leedon Lower School - Highfield Rd
Linslade Lower School
Mary Basset Lower School - Bassett Rd
Pulford VA C Of E Lower School - Pulford Rd
St Georges Lower School - East St
St Leonards (Heath & Reach) V A Lower School
Stanbridge Lower School
Southcott Lower School - Bideford Green

Oak Bank Special School - Sandy La
Overstone Combined School - Tilsworth Rd

Brooklands Middle School - A school near the south east edge of the town. It is facing closure and a "Save our School" campaign is underway as of July 2007.
Gilbert Inglefield Middle School - Next door to Vandyke Upper School.
Leighton Middle School - Is in the centre of the town, Mary Norton, who wrote the 'Borrowers' books, lived there in her childhood.
Linslade Middle School - Situated over the road from Cedars.

Cedars Upper School - Located on the west edge of town, was once a grammar school.
Vandyke Upper School - Situated on the east edge of town. As of late 2006, the school has been undergoing a £2.5 million refurbishment.

The NatWest Bank at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England in the style of an Italian palazzo is an example of Neo-Renaissance architecture.

Leighton Buzzard, High Street. The former "Bassett's Bank" (now Barclays Bank) designed by the eminent Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse.

Leighton Buzzard is close to the M1 motorway and A5 road, and is served by the West Coast Main Line railway at Leighton Buzzard railway station (in Linslade). The Grand Union Canal runs through the town, alongside the River Ouzel.

The town was where the 1960s band 'The Barron Knights' first formed and also the 1980s pop group 'Kajagoogoo', who had an international hit with 'Too Shy'.

Other famous residents of, or the villages close to, Leighton Buzzard include the late Bob Monkhouse, Kriss Akabusi, Dave Lee Travis, Steve Askew (Kajagoogoo) and Darren Gough.

Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild lived at Leighton Buzzard in Leighton House before building and moving to Waddesdon Manor.

The town is also infamous for being dumped into Room 101 by comedy duo Mel Giedroyc & Sue Perkins.

One of the local quarries was used in the Hamunaptra scene in The Mummy Returns and more recently a scene for The Da Vinci Code

The town is, or has at one time, been the home to various industries: Lipton Tea which has now closed down, Gossard clothing, Lancer Boss (forklifts, etc.).

The town has a sizeable sand quarrying industry.

The first and only TXE1 telephone exchange was developed by the General Post Office and went into service in 1968. To meet the growing demand it was added to by two TXE2 exchanges and a TXE6 exchange on the night of 18th August 1971. A third TXE2 was added latter but everything was all replaced by a TXE4 exchange around 1977, some of the TXE2 equipment was used to provide a new TXE2 at West Mersea Island in Essex. The large building, built on the site of the former Lake House, that housed all these TXE exchanges and the current digital exchange can be found in Lake Street.

Countrywide and Connells/Sequence, the UK's two largest estate agents' chains, both have their head offices in the town, as does the UK branch of Tupperware.

Arms of the Leighton-Linslade Town Council

There are numerous amateur dramatic organisations in the town, including Leighton Buzzard Drama Group, Leighton Musical Theatre Company (formerly Leighton Linslade Amateur Operatic Society), Leighton Masqueraders and Leighton Buzzard Children’s Theatre.

In addition many amateur music groups and organisations exist in the town, including the Leighton Buzzard Music Centre (at Vandyke Upper School), the Leighton Buzzard Festival Singers and the Linsdale Singers.

The town is expanding eastwards, and it encompasses RAF Stanbridge and the former hamlet of Leedon. The population of Leighton-Linslade is estimated to have reached 34,370 in 2004 and is forecast to rise to 39,180 by 2009.^[5]