Leighton-Buzzard, a market-town of Bedfordshire, on the Ouse, 41 miles by rail NW. of London. Its fine cruciform church, mainly Early English, has a spire of 193 feet, and was restored in 1886; in the market-place is a pentagonal cross; the corn exchange was built in 1862. Straw-plait is the staple industry. The suffix Buzzard is a corruption of Beaudesert or Bosard, a great family here in the 14th century. Pop. (1851) 4465; (1881) 5991.
Leighton-Buzzard
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 6: Humber to Malta, p. 569
Source scan(s): p. 0584