Tophill, Luton

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.

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.

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.

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.

Leagrave is a former village and now a suburb of Luton, in the Luton district, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England, in the northwest of the town. The current council ward is roughly bounded by Vincent Road, Torquay Drive and High Street to the north, Roman Road and Stoneygate Road to the south, the M1 to the west, and Marsh Road and Leagrave Park to the east. Due to its 35-minute connection by train from Leagrave station into London it is home to significant numbers of commuters, with almost two million using the train station each year. Leagrave station also has connections to Bedford in the north and Brighton in the south by Thameslink. Junctions 11 and 11a of the M1 are close at hand as well as Luton Airport.

Lewsey Brook is a minor tributary of the River Lea. Lewsey Brook is a temporal water course, supplied by surface water from farmland and the nearby Luton suburbs of Lewsey, Lewsey Farm, and Lewsey Park, that enters the channel through a culvert. During periods of heavy rain, water floods areas of the nearby Lewsey Park.Lewsey Brook enters the River Lea via Knapps Brook at Toddington Road in Leagrave village. The brook is most easily viewed Lewsey Park in Luton.

The Luton/Dunstable urban area, according to the Office for National Statistics, is the conurbation (continuous built up area) including the settlements of Luton, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, in Bedfordshire, East of England. Despite straddling district boundaries the conurbation shares many facilities including an integrated bus service and the large Luton and Dunstable University Hospital. The conurbation is located in the southern part of the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England, and includes the unitary authority of Luton, and part of Central Bedfordshire. The current population (2021 census) is 286,803. This is an increase of 9% from the 2011 population of 258,018.

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.

Knapps Brook is a minor tributary of the River Lea in Bedfordshire, England. The source of the river Lea is on Leagrave Common in Luton. It forms from a combination of brooks from East End, Houghton Regis and from the Lewsey Estate near the old Lewsey Farm. It joins the River Lea from culverts under the railway embankment and Toddington Road in Leagrave.The brook is most easily viewed from footpaths alongside Toddington Road or footpaths running through the nearby Hockwell Ring estate. Nearby Nappsbury Road in Leagrave takes its name from the former Napps Nursery that occupied the site. The nursery name being a corruption of the brook that runs adjacent to the site.

Houghton Brook is a minor tributary of the River Lea. Houghton Brook starts in Houghton Regis and is fed by a number of smaller brooks in the area, mostly supplied by surface water from farmland and the various local villages and housing estates. The Houghton Brook starts behind the Pavilion on Houghton Regis Village Green and wends eastward though Houghton Brook flows through Houghton Regis, Lewsey and Hockwell Ring before joining the River Lea in Leagrave.

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.

Lewsey is a suburb of Luton, about 3 miles (4.8 km) west north-west of the town centre, and a ward of the Borough of Luton, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. The suburb is roughly bounded by Leagrave High Street to the north, Dunstable Road to the south, Poynters Road, Dunstable to the west, and the M1 to the east.