Leagrave

Leagrave railway station is located in Leagrave, a suburb in the north of Luton in Bedfordshire, England. Leagrave station is situated on the Midland Main Line 33¾ miles (54 km) north of London St Pancras International. The station is managed by Govia Thameslink Railway, and is served by the Thameslink route.

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.

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.

Challney High School for Boys is a secondary school located in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The school educates boys between the ages of 11 and 16.

Challney High School for Girls is a school comprehensive secondary school for girls, located in the Challney area of Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The school is situated next to Challney High School for Boys and the M1 motorway. The school educates girls aged 11 – 16. For further education courses such as A levels, graduating students usually go on to attend Luton Sixth Form College. In 2006, Challney High School for Girls was awarded specialist status as a Science College. The school continues to offer science as a specialism today. In January 2011, Challney High School for Girls moved into a newly built school on Addington Way not far, almost directly opposite the old building. In February 2017, the school was converted to an academy by Ofsted. The academy still operates under the name Challney High School for Girls, within the Chiltern Learning Trust. Recently, the school has been rewarded ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted.

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.

Challney is a district in Luton, in the Luton district, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England, off the main arterial road leading from Luton into Dunstable. The area is roughly bounded by Rodheath, Stoneygate Road, Roman Road, and Beechwood Road to the north, Hatters Way to the south, the M1 to the west, and Waller Avenue and Chaul End Lane to the east.

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.

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.

Luton and Dunstable University Hospital is an acute hospital in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, run by Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It provides medical and surgical services for over 350,000 people in southern Bedfordshire, the north of Hertfordshire and parts of Buckinghamshire. The hospital is often abbreviated to the 'L&D', and employs 3,400 staff.

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.

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.