Luton body

A Luton body is a style of commercial vehicle body incorporating an enclosed box body extended over the cab. It takes its name from the town of Luton, in Bedfordshire, where the Bedford commercial vehicle plant was located.

This style of body was designed to accommodate the high volume low weight loads of straw hats which were part of Luton's industry. Straw hats were wrapped in hessian in long cylinders to fit across the width of the van. It was incidental that it was the home of Bedford although all the early Luton vans were on Bedford chassis.

The body style is common in medium commercial vehicles such as the Ford Transit, as well as larger vehicles especially those used by household removals companies. More modern examples may be streamlined to reduce wind resistance. Some commercial vehicles have a wind deflector on the cab roof, but this is not a Luton body: the Luton is functional and can be accessed from the main body. The portion of the body that rests over the cab is referred to as the peak, also referred to, in some quarters as a Luton, or a kick.

Luton

Luton (ⁱ/ˈluːtən/ LOOT-ən,local /ˈluːʔən/) is a large town, borough and unitary authority area of Bedfordshire, England. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 258,000. It is located 20 miles (30 km) east of Aylesbury, 14 miles (20 km) west of Stevenage, 30 miles (50 km) north-northwest of London, and 22 miles (40 km) southeast of Milton Keynes.

Luton is home to League Two team Luton Town Football Club, whose history includes several spells in the top flight of the English league as well as a Football League Cup triumph in 1988. They play at Kenilworth Road stadium, which has been their home since 1905.

London Luton Airport, opened in 1938, is one of England's major airports. During the Second World War it doubled as an RAF base.

The University of Bedfordshire is based in the town.

The Luton Carnival, which has traditionally been held on the Whitsun May bank holiday, is the largest one-day carnival in Europe. It has for the past two years been held on the Sunday instead. In 2012, it was moved to July to coincide with the Olympic Torch Relay and celebrations.

Luton (disambiguation)

Luton is a large town in Bedfordshire. It may also refer to the following.

See also

Luton (UK Parliament constituency)

Luton was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Luton in Bedfordshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

The Bedfordshire Southern or Luton constituency was created for the 1885 general election as a county division of Bedfordshire, when the former Bedfordshire county constituency was abolished.

Luton became a borough constituency in 1950 ().

At the February 1974 general election the Borough constituency was abolished, and replaced by two new borough constituencies: Luton East and Luton West.

Boundaries

1885-1918: The Municipal Boroughs of Dunstable and Luton, the Sessional Divisions of Leighton Buzzard, Luton, and Woburn, and part of the Sessional Division of Ampthill.

1918-1950: The Municipal Boroughs of Dunstable and Luton, and the Rural District of Luton.

1950-1974: The Municipal Borough of Luton except the wards of Leagrave and Limbury.