Dunstable

Dunstable, a town in the south of Bedfordshire, at the east base of the Chiltern chalk-hills or Dunstable Downs, 36 miles NW. of London by rail. An old-fashioned, brick-built place, with two main streets crossing at right angles, it has a fine priory church, partly Norman, which since 1865 has undergone restoration. In 1110 this Augustinian priory was the scene of the earliest Miracle Play (q.v.) on record, so that Dunstable claims to be the birth-place of the English drama. It has also an ancient celebrity for larks and for straw-plait, which still is the staple industry. Whiting is also made. The grammar-school (1715) was rebuilt in 1888, at a cost of £10,000. Dunstable, which stood at the intersection of Watling and Icknield Streets, was the site of an Eleanor Cross (demolished 1643), and the scene of Queen Catharine's divorce by Cranmer. It was made a municipal borough in 1864. Pop. (1851) 3589; (1891) 4513.