Church of St Mary, Sundon

Upper Sundon is a village located in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. The village is the largest settlement in the wider Sundon civil parish, though Lower Sundon is presumed to be older, as the parish church (first built in the 13th Century) is located there. The manor of Sundon is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. The manor was held by the de Clare, Badlesmere and Scrope families until the mid 16th century, when it passed to the Cheyne family. In 1716 it was sold to William Clayton, 1st Baron Sundon. It later passed to the Page-Turner family.Today, Upper Sundon houses most of the amenities located in the parish, including Sundon Lower School and a pub. Historically the village contained three pubs but two have since closed leaving The Red Lion as the only public house in Upper Sundon. The village is close to the large town of Luton, and is bordered on the west by the M1 motorway. The village has a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Sundon Chalk Quarry. The Icknield Way Path passes through the village on its 110-mile journey from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Knettishall Heath in Suffolk. The Icknield Way Trail, a multi-user route for walkers, horse riders and off-road cyclists also passes near the village.

Sundon is a civil parish in the English county of Bedfordshire. There are two settlements: the one called Upper Sundon at the top of the hill is now the main village, and the presumably older one by the church is now a hamlet called Lower Sundon. Sundon Lower School is located in the village of Upper Sundon. Sundon has a village hall and a pub, the Red Lion. The manor of Sundon is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. The manor was held by the de Clare, Badlesmere and Scrope families until the mid 16th century, when it passed to the Cheyne family. In 1716 it was sold to William Clayton, 1st Baron Sundon. It later passed to the Page-Turner family.The parish church, dedicated to St Mary, is a Grade I listed building. It dates back largely to the 14th century, with some 13th century elements. The Victorian vicarage is Grade II listed, and features very fine latticed windows.Because of changes to its boundary, the parish no longer includes Sundon Park (which is now an area of Luton) or the "Sundon Substation" of the National Grid for electricity (which lies west of the railway, near the village of Chalton).

Sundon Park is a suburb of north Luton, in the Luton district, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. The area is roughly bounded by the edge of Luton to the north, Leagrave Park to the south, the Midland Main Line to the west, and Spinney Woods and the footpath from the woods to the edge of town to the east. The name is taken from the nearby villages of Upper Sundon and Lower Sundon, and the estate was originally built as a self-contained community serving the SKF ball bearing factory.

Sundon Chalk Quarry is a 26.2-hectare (65-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Upper Sundon in Bedfordshire. It was notified in 1989 under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and the local planning authority is Central Bedfordshire Council. The site is privately owned but there is free public access.The quarry was established to provide chalk and marl for the Sundon cement works, which operated between 1899 and 1976. The site is part of a large complex of disused chalk quarries, and its varied habitats include fens, lakes, chalk grassland, scrub and woodland. Interesting chalkland plants found here include ploughman’s spikenard, wild liquorice and woolly thistle, and what is probably the largest colony of the Chiltern gentian in England.The quarry has one of the most important assemblages of insect species in Bedfordshire, including sixteen species of dragonfly and damselfly, and twenty-one of butterfly, including the uncommon Adonis blue. The odontids include the scarce blue-tailed damselfly and the ruddy darter dragonfly, both of which are scarce in Britain, and the emerald damselfly and the red-eyed damselfly, which are uncommon in Bedfordshire. There are a number of uncommon beetles including Apion astragali, the larvae of which feed solely on the wild licorice, itself a scarce plant in Britain. There are also amphibians, with the common frog, smooth newt and great crested newt regularly breeding here.The Chiltern Way passes through the site on a footpath from Church Road.

Lealands High School, formerly Sundon Park Comprehensive School, is a foundation school for 11 to 16 year olds located in Sundon Park, Luton. The school attracts students from Sundon Park and across Luton and Bedfordshire. It was judged good with outstanding behaviour and safety by Ofsted in 2013 and confirmed to continue being a good school overall in March 2017 following a short inspection by Ofsted. In 2014 the school was placed in the top 100 most improved secondary schools for GCSE results including English and maths over a sustained period. Main feeder schools include Sundon Park Juniors School, Leagrave Primary and Pirton Hill, although students join Lealands from primary schools across Luton and the surrounding areas.

Tophill is a suburb of Luton, in the north-west of the town, centred on Toddington Road, in Bedfordshire, England. It is roughly bounded by the edge of Luton to the north, Brickly Road to the south, the M1 to the west, and the Midland Main Line to the east.Tophill mostly consists of 1960s, 70s, and 80s suburban housing, and also includes the Toddington Road industrial estate and the Vauxhall Aftersales Warehouse.

Lower Sundon is a hamlet located in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. The settlement was established before 1066. The manor of Sundon is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. The manor was held by the de Clare, Badlesmere and Scrope families until the mid 16th century, when it passed to the Cheyne family. In 1716 it was sold to William Clayton, 1st Baron Sundon. It later passed to the Page-Turner family.The St Mary the Virgin Church was first built in Lower Sundon in the 13th Century. It is a Grade I listed building. The Victorian vicarage is Grade II listed, and features very fine latticed windows.Today, Lower Sundon lies in the wider Sundon civil parish, and is close to the large town of Luton.

Chalton is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England, immediately north of the Luton/Dunstable conurbation and bounded to the east by the M1 motorway and the Midland Main Line railway line. A footpath, locally known as the "Bound Way", borders the village to the south and south west. This path now forms part of the Chiltern Way. The fields around Chalton below Carters hill are the source of the River Flit. Nearby places are Toddington (north west), Chalgrave (west), Houghton Regis (south west), and Sundon (east).

The Lea Valley Walk is a 50-mile (80 km) long-distance path located between Leagrave, the source of the River Lea near Luton, and the Thames, at Limehouse Basin, Limehouse, east London. From its source much of the walk is rural. At Hertford the path follows the towpath of the River Lee Navigation, and it becomes increasingly urbanised as it approaches London. The walk was opened in 1993 and is waymarked throughout using a swan logo.

Hockwell Ring is a suburb of Luton in the north-west of the town, in Bedfordshire, England. The area is roughly bounded by Brickly Road to the north, High Street and Torquay Drive to the south, the M1 motorway to the west, and Vincent Road to the east. Hockwell Ring mostly consists of a 1950s and 1960s-built council estate. The estate was built as part of the post-war expansion of Luton, at a similar time to Marsh Farm. Hockwell Ring is not a particularly large estate. The area ties into much of the neighbouring 1930s developments and is reasonably well connected to the rest of the town. The estate is dominated by four large towers, which are of similar design, 14 stories high, and top out at 44.20 m each, these can be seen clearly from the M1 motorway southbound carriageway just before Junction 11, which passes close to the estate. The tower blocks were constructed in 1965–1966, at roughly the same time as the rest of the estate and are typical examples of the British approach to 1960s high-rise living. They dominate the skyline of that part of the town, and along with the towers in Marsh Farm and Park Town are the tallest buildings in the town and county. At the centre of the estate is a small shopping centre, park, and other facilities, doctors and dentist. The tower blocks are undergoing some refurbishment to the exterior.Like many other estates of the 1960s, Hockwell Ring was seen as a vision for the future; however, by the 1990s the reality was very different. House prices in the area had fallen dramatically and the estate had developed a very real image problem. Things have begun to change in recent times. An influx of London commuters to the area due to its proximity to Leagrave train station has led to an increase in house prices. The estate is seeing some improvements. Many of the locals that caused problems and damaged the image of the area have now moved out, and the area as a whole has a much safer image.

Lewsey Park is a suburb of Luton, Bedfordshire, England. Situated in the north-west of the town, the area is roughly bounded by Woodside Link to the North, Leagrave High Street to the south, Pastures Way to the west, and the M1 to the east.

Waulud's Bank is a possible Neolithic henge in Leagrave, Luton dating from 3,000BC. The Waulud's Bank earthworks are in the North of Luton and are situated on the edge of Leagrave common, with Central Leagrave to the south east and Marsh Farm to the west. The River Lea runs alongside on the western side, its source located within the vicinity of the surrounding marsh. Archaeological excavations in 1953, 1971 and 1982 date the site to around 3000 BC, in the Neolithic period, although there was evidence of earlier mesolithic hunter/fisher activity in the immediate area. The 'D' shape of the earthwork is almost identical to that of Marden in Wiltshire, both sites have a river forming one side, and each produced neolithic grooved-ware pottery. Waulud's Bank lies on a glacial ridge near which runs the prehistoric Icknield Way. Initially it was probably a domestic enclosure used for cattle herding. It has been suggested that it later became a henge monument, although the position of its surrounding ditch outside its timber-faced bank would be unusual. Evidence suggests that the site was briefly re-used in the Iron Age, during the Roman occupation and in medieval times. The enclosure consists of a bank and external ditch of around 7 hectares with a turf-revetted chalk and gravel bank faced by a wooden stockade. No entrances have been identified. Most external features have been destroyed by a 19th-century gravel quarry on the south, and the irresponsible dumping of tons of chalk and top-soil along the eastern side during building construction of Marsh Farm in the 1970s. Geophysical surveys in July 1985 and January 2009 failed to reveal any very positive indications of internal features. The bank still stands 2.6 m high in places and on the north side the excavated ditch was 9.2 m wide and 2.1 m deep. Finds included neolithic pottery, animal bones and flint arrow heads (some are on display at Stockwood Heritage Centre, Luton Museum). The building at the edge of Waulud's Bank was a one time farmhouse called Marsh Farm House, the occupants of which owned the area that later became Marsh Farm.