Our resident ‘fact-finder’ Orson Cartier informs us of 10 ‘fascinating facts’ about Luton.



1,
The late Eric Morecambe was probably Luton Town’s most famous fan….but did you know that Eric was actually born in Morecambe?

2,
After hours of internet research I eventually found someone called Eric Luton who lives in Cleveland Ohio…..I phoned him and enquired if he’s a fan of Morecambe F.C……he sounded confused and before the line went dead replied that he ‘hadn’t got a clue’ as to what I meant.

3,
The Wardown Park Museum in Luton has a section attributed to hats with over 700 examples of locally manufactured headgear…….whilst Stockport’s Hat Works, which dedicates itself to displaying just ‘hats’ has only around 400 exhibits! As in Stockport’s Museum, one is also ejected from the premises in Luton when caught ‘trying on’ the hats.

4,
Kenilworth Road, home of tonight’s opponents Luton Town, is widely recognised as the most difficult football ground in the World to locate……this is because it’s built in amongst a row of terraced houses as to camouflage it from potential Nazi invaders during WW2…….the ruse would mean that even in the event of German occupation, the British tradition of having a game of footie could secretly go ahead……although the crowd would have to ‘whisper’ encouragement to the players and celebrate goals in ‘hushed tones’ for fear of being ‘found out’ by any nosey Wehrmacht patrols.

5,
Like Stockport, Luton is well-known for it’s hat industry……but it’s a little known fact that, due to a local by-law, it is deemed illegal to wear a hat within a 2 mile radius of the Town Hall (except on Sundays and the day before Christmas Eve…..where the law is ‘reversed’ and it becomes compulsory to don a titfer) …..most people ignore the ancient law but if the ‘powers that be’ chose to enforce it, any perpetrator could be fined up to £4 and hung by the knees in the Town Square for 8 weeks unless death occurred before the sentence was completed where as the convicted corpse’s next of kin would be forced to complete the sentence.

6,
Unlike most of us, ‘Lutonites’ have never taken to Cheese…..and nobody knows why!
So concerned was the Government’s Ministry for Cheese, that in 1981, the shadow under-secretary for cheese (a young Tony Blair) headed an all-party parliamentary emergency meeting to find out why the dairy product was mostly absent from local larders in the Luton area. After much debate it was decided that an advertising agency should be employed to ‘make cheese trendy in Luton’.
After spending £13m of taxpayers money, the slogan’s ‘Make mine Cheese’ and ‘Hats off to Cheese’ featured on billboards all over Town…..although cheese sales went up to just over ½ % from the previous year, the ‘great cheese revolution’ never materialised and latest figures show that ‘cheese apathy’ is still prevalent in the area.

7,
The Bedfordshire Town boasts over 400 model railway societies (402 to be exact) with the largest being the ‘Model Users of Rail and Diesel Engineering Recreation and Electrified Replicas Society (M.U.R.D.E.R.E.R.S.) based in East Luton and is rumoured to have over 47,000 members Worldwide!

8.
Luton-born crooner Paul Young had a Worldwide smash hit with his song ‘Wherever I lay my hat’……ironically, the ‘hat’ he was referring to wasn’t made in Luton…..it was manufactured right here in Stockport!

9,
Harry Worth’s trademark Trilby on the other hand was crafted in Luton……although Harry was a Northerner!!

10.
In 1979, the aforementioned popster Paul Young, whilst in a musical combo named ‘Streetband’ had another big hit with the novelty song ‘Toast’.........……..but I’ll bet good money there was no ‘cheese’ on his toast!!!!

Thank you and enjoy the game.
Orson.

(What a load of absolute rubbish!!....You’re fired!....Ed.)