Luton Facts & Trivia

29/04/2008 Luton Casanova shows how it's done!

After dating over 1000 woman and then being band from an online dating agency Clive Worth decided to start one of his own. He also created a book telling readers just how to date thousand of woman all over world.

CliveWorth.co.uk

03/02/2008 Woman steals £500 worth of sex toys

Margaret Walsh from Luton was sentenced to a year's community service after being caught steeling £500 worth of "Rampant Rabbits" from an Ann Summers store in Milton Keynes.

25/02/2006 Gothic tower for sale in Luton

If it is your fantasy to live in a luxurious Gothic tower overlooking the Chilterns then now is your chance! The five story high Bailey Hill Water Tower has been restored to an exotic mansion! The tower was designed by Edwardian architect Henry T Hare in the Beaux Arts style.

17/10/2005 It must be close to Halloween when..

A mysterious big cat is spotted in Harpenden just 5 miles from Luton. A woman who was walking her dog at the time spotted the beast on Bower Heath Lane! From descriptions it seems that the animal could be a puma. It was also seen in a car park CCTV camera. If it is a puma then who knows it could make its way to Luton as these animals can travel miles in a day!
The Plymouth Big Cat Society have been called in to investigate.
So if you do see a big cat, a really big cat then the British Big Cats Society would love to hear from you!

British Big Cats Society

22/09/2005 The haunted church of Clophill

Just 10 miles out of Luton (between Luton and Bedford on the A6) there are the remains of St Mary's church in Clophill. During the 1960's graves were broken into and the bones arranged in strange symbols around the ruins. To this day many people report strange phenomena at the location. Some can be explained by local pranksters using light projection equipment but the others.......?

09/06/2005 Haunting at Britannia Estates

An employee working at Britannia reported seeing a ghost while she was working late one evening. It was a white haired man with long fingernails. The ghost even spoke to the woman and told her that his wife and children had abandoned him because he always worked late.

31/05/2005 More movies filmed in Luton

The BBC are filming their new mini-sreies called "Bleak House" at Luton Hoo where they have built a temporary Victorian street.
Mentmore Towers near Leighton Bussard were used for the blockbuster "Batman Begins".
Luton Airpot have also been approached by movie makers most notably for "The Terminal" but turned down the offer due to too much disruption by film crew.

12/03/2005 What What?

Have you seen some strange stickers around the area, in particular Milton Keynes. There is nothing on them except the words What What! Here is the secret - a weird surreal internet art experience:

What What

05/01/2005 The search for the Holy Grail continues...

...in Hertford! Apparently there are secret tunnels connecting Bayley Hall, Priory Street, Fore Street, Market Square and Hertford Castle. There are also blocked entrances to the tunnels from Threshers, the tourist office and even Pizza Express! Up to now the tunnels existence were only known by a modern arm of the Knights Templar! It is rumored that these tunnels may hold the secret to the Holy Grail and are used even today as a buzzing underground meeting place for more mysterious locals!

16/10/2004 Overbearing hobby

It appears that one of Lutons major companies SKF are more than helpful in supporting people that collect ball bearings for a hobby. Comedy writer Robin Cooper wrote a joke letter to SKF asking for advice on his son's ball bearing collection to which he received the following reply from SKF: "We wholeheartedly support you in this venture and I have enclosed several publications aimed at helping you in packing, storing, lubricating and caring for your impressive collection in the most appropriate fashion."
So with such dedicated local help for the hobby I'm not surprised that more Lutonian's don't take up ball bearing collecting!

05/09/2004 Mrs Jenkin's rocketchair

When Mrs Jenkins of Stopsley came back from holiday she discovered in horror that son-in-law Mr Cannella had bolted a Rolls-Royce rocket engine to her old wheelchair. The chair can now do a thundering 60 miles per hour on the tarmac. The only problem is that fuel consumption is a whopping 3 miles to the gallon!
Mr Cannela uses the chair to help raise money for a Parkinson's Disease charity and Mrs Jenkins now has a new more conventional wheelchair.

04/07/2004 £700 curry at Luton airport!

Feeling a little peckish at Luton Airport actor Antonio Banderas ordered a curry take away from his favorite Indian restaurant Tamarind in Mayfair London. The cost £700!. Antonio was visiting England for the Shrek 2 preview at Leicester Square at the time.

14/06/2004 Anyone been to Sunnyside Close?

Award winning novelist Charlotte Cory's The Wonderful World Of Allaetitia is a comic journey into a child's imaginations. The story is set in fictional Sunnyside Close Luton in the 1960s. The series is currently on Radio 4 at 10.45 - 11am!

12/05/2004 In search of the Holy Grail

King Arthur did not find it but a team of Experts from Bletchley Park (Near Milton Keynes) are trying to crack a 250 year old code that points the way to the legendary cup! The code itself is etched on a Staffordshire garden ornament believed to have connections with the Knights Templars.

Bletchley Park was the secret decoding station during World War II and some say that if it was not for the skills of cryptographers we may not even have won the war! Bletchley is still the location of the National Codes Centre.

Visit the National Codes Centre here

10/04/2004 Haunting at Dorset Court

According to the newspaper Luton on Sunday, a couple living in a flat in Dorset Court in Bailey Street were driven out of their home by a series of unexplained phenomena. In one case Nissal Ahmed and his wife Rizuana were talking on the porch when he felt liquid splash onto his face. He went to the bathroom to wash it off and saw more blood splattered on the wall. In another incident a headless man appeared in the doorway! Apparently the old man who used to live at the flat just disappeared.

12/01/2004 Colour Me Kubrick

A new movie was filmed in Luton's High Town this week. The film with the production name "Colour Me Kubrick" is to be based on the true story of a con artist who impersonated director Stanley Kubrick. The lead role is performed by John Malkovich and will include performances by James Dreyfus, Leslie Phillips, Ian Shaw and Jim Davidson. For three days residents of Hightown will see 1960's cars and the appearance of "The Blue Danube Adult Shop" and other fictitious signs in the area!

28/11/2003 And you thought you get lots of emails!

Did you know that Luton Council receive 35000 emails a day for its 2500 users! They have had to employ special archiving systems to deal with this. The council is also the first UK authority to achieve BS779 certification for data security management.

02/11/2003 Doctor Evil's barcode suit for sale

Offworld at the Luton indoor market has Dr Evil's (From Austin Powers) costume with the 00001 barcode. This is the genuine article and the price is a cool £2000! Probably the most expensive thing you can buy at the market! Offworld is run by James Woollard.

28/10/2003 The Firemen were stoned!

Did the town hall burn down because the firemen had had a bit of the Whacky Baccy? It would seem that way from this Times headline circu July 21st 1919!

27/10/2003 Galley Hill Luton

Just outside of Luton is a site known as Galley Hill. This is where the local gallows used to be located. Witches were buried here in the 16th and 17th centuries. The site was also used for rituals and during excavations a strange steer skull was found with a dice placed on top of it.

26/10/2003 Tight Fit

The Fire Brigade had to be called out to the Luton and Dunstable hospital on Thursday 23rd to remove a steel ring that had somehow managed to get stuck on a man's penis. The Hospital did not have the correct cutting equipment to remove the ring apparently so had to call out the brigade.

Just how did a steel ring get there in the first place? I think such questions should remain unanswered!

26/10/2003 Most haunted Pub

The Lilley Arms is Lutons most haunted pub. This pub has even been featured on a TV program called "Phantom or Fraud". The pub in Village of Lilley is 300 years old has a long history of hauntings. Some ghostly "residents" include "Old Tom", a postman, lady Fancis, an old kitchen maid and a man named "John". Also bizarrely a shepherd has been seen coming out of the mens toilets!

20/05/2003 Plane lands at Luton under instruction from baby!

Apparently according to Reuters on 20 may 2003 - "Instead of landing instructions, aircraft approaching Britain's Luton airport heard the squealing of tiny infant Freya Spratley broadcast over their radios.

Authorities worked 12 hours to track the frequency and determined that a baby monitor at mother Lisa Spratley's house, located near the airport, was broadcasting her baby's cries to the cockpits of approaching planes, the BBC reported on Monday.

"It was like something out of the Ghostbusters. They came down the path and stopped me and said we'd like to check something inside the house," Lisa Spratley told the station.

"They said they were working on behalf of Luton airport traffic control. They'd been asked to sort out interference they'd been receiving on the airwaves and had tracked it down to our address."

The BBC said there was no threat to safety: pilots who heard the infant Freya instead of air traffic control were able to switch to a different frequency.

The company that made the baby monitor supplied the Spratleys with a new one. And little Freya seemed to have little idea of the commotion she had caused."