Online Encyclopedia

DUNSTABLE

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 684 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DUNSTABLE  , a municipal

borough and market
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town in the
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southern
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parliamentary division of Bedfordshire, England, 37 m . N.W. of
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London, on branches of the
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Great
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Northern and London & North-Western
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railways . Pop . (Igor) 5157 . It lies at an
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elevation of about 500 ft. on the bleak northward slope of the Chiltern Hills . The church of St Peter and St Paul is a
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fine fragment of the church of the Augustinian priory founded by Henry I. in 1131 . The
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building was cruciform, but only the west front and
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part of the
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nave remain . The front has a large
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late Norman portal of four orders, with rich Early
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English arcading above; the nave
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arcade is ornate Norman . The
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original
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triforium is transformed into a clerestory, the original clerestory being lost . The north-west tower has a Perpendicular upper portion, but the south-west tower is destroyed . The church contains various monuments of the 18th century .
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Foundations of a palace of Henry I. are traceable near the church .

The

main part of the town extends for a mile along the broad straight
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Roman road, Watling Street; the high road from
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Luton to
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Tring, which crosses it in the centre of the town, representing the ancient Icknield Way . The chief industry is
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straw
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hat manufacture; there are also printing,
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stationery and
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engineering
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works . The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors .
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Area, 453 acres . There may have been a Romano-
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British
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village on this site on the Watling Street . Dunstable (Donestaple, Donestaple) first appears as a royal borough in the reign of Henry I., who, according to tradition, on account of the depredations of robbers, cleared the
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forest where Watling Street and the Icknield Way met, and encouraged his subjects to settle there by various grants of privileges . He endowed the priory by charter with the lordship of the
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manor and borough, which it retained till its dissolution in 1536-1537 . The Dunstable Annals
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deal exhaustively with the
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history of the monastery and town in the 13th century . In 1219 the prior secured the right of holding a court there for all
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crown pleas and of sitting beside the justices itinerant, and this led to serious collision between the monks and burgesses . The
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body of Queen Eleanor rested here for a
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night on its journey to Westminster, and a
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cross, of which there is now no trace, was subsequently erected in the market-place . At Dunstable Cranmer held the court which, in 1533, declared Catherine of Aragon's
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marriage invalid . At the dissolution a plan was set on
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foot for the creation of a new bishopric from the spoils of the religious houses, which was to include Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire with Dunstable as
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cathedral city .

The

scheme was never realized, though plans for the cathedral were actually
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drawn up . From the earliest time Dunstable has been an agricultural town . The Annals abound with references to the prices and
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comparative abundance or scarcity of the two
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staple products, wool and corn . The straw hat manufacture has flourished since the 18th century . Henry I. granted a market held twice a week, and a three days'
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fair on the feast of St Peter ad Vincula . John made a further grant of a three days' fair from the loth of May . A market is still held weekly, also fairs in May and August correspond to these grants . Dunstable had also a gild merchant and was affiliated to London . In 1864 the town was made a municipal borough by royal charter .

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