History of Bedfordshire than fifty places in the county. Following the enactment of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, Bedford was the only borough in the county. Charters of incorporation were granted to Dunstable in 1864 and Luton in 1876. In 1837 the county was divided into poor law unions, each consisting of a town and surrounding rural parishes: Ampthill, Bedford, Biggleswade, Leighton Buzzard, Luton and Woburn. In addition, a handful of parishes near the boundaries of Bedfordshire were included in PLUs based in other counties, namely Hitchin in Hertfordshire, St Neots in Huntingdonshire and Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. In 1875, the county was divided
Leighton Buzzard Light Railway modern housing built since the 1970s, although the last half mile runs through countryside. There are open level crossings for which trains stop. The railway began at Grovebury Sidings, where sand trains unloaded into washers and the sand was shipped to standard-gauge trains on the Dunstable branch or to road. The sidings and industrial plant at Grovesbury were replaced with an industrial estate in the early 1970s. Trains from Grovebury crossed Billington Road by a level crossing and worked up a steep grade to Page's Park. Here a branch line south connected to the line's main engineering workshop and the