Strawopolis: Luton Transformed 1840-1876
Title Details

320 Pages

23.4 x 15.6 cm

3 colour. 1 line.

Series: Publications Bedfordshire Hist Rec Soc

Series Vol. Number: 78

Imprint: Bedfordshire Historical Record Society

Strawopolis: Luton Transformed 1840-1876

by Stephen Bunker

Edited by Chris Pickford

  • Description
  • Author
Based on the author's PhD thesis, traces the transformation of Luton from a market town to a manufacturing centre during the mid-nineteenth century.

This volume, based on the author's PhD thesis, traces the transformation of Luton from a market town to a manufacturing centre during the mid-nineteenth century. Its development was built on the straw hat industry. While this trade, from which the title of the book is taken, is examined in Chapter 1, the aim of the book is to elucidate the cottage economy antecedents of a modern engineering town. This involves a consideration not only of its industrial base but also the distinctive nature of the local economy, the challenges posed by unrestricted urban growth, religion, education, politics and institutions such as the Board of Health.
Above all, however, this book is about the people of Luton who created the town's transformation. Fittingly, the book concludes with biographical notes on some of the people of mid-nineteenth century Luton.

Dr Stephen Bunker is a Bedfordshire-born historian, formerly keeper of local history at Luton Museum and senior lecturer in history at the University of Luton. He has published several books on Luton history, amongst them Spy Capital of Britain – Bedfordshire’s Secret War, 1939-1945 (2007).

Chris Pickford studied history at Leicester and qualified as an archivist at University College London. He joined the staff of Bedfordshire County Record Office in 1977, becoming County Archivist in 1986. He left in 1998 to become Director of the Church of England Record Centre (CERC) in London. While at BCRO he took an active part in BHRS. He is an acknowledged expert on clocks and bells. Among a wide range of historical interests, architectural history and the study of buildings rank highest. Since leaving CERC in 2001 he has worked freelance. His revised edition of the Pevsner Buildings of England volume on Warwickshire, his native county, was published in 2016.

Ebook (EPDF)

9781800107656

January 1999

Buy

$24.95 / £19.99

Title Details

320 Pages

2.34 x 1.56 cm

3 colour. 1 line.

Series: Publications Bedfordshire Hist Rec Soc

Series Vol. Number: 78

Imprint: Bedfordshire Historical Record Society