Sitting close to Luton’s town centre, Biscot is an established residential area within the Luton district, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire. Its boundaries are roughly drawn by Montrose Avenue to the north, the Midland Main Line railway to the west, and the A6 road to the east. Long before it was absorbed into Luton in the early twentieth century, Biscot was a small hamlet standing apart from the town.
Ancient Origins and the Domesday Record
The name Biscot dates back to the Domesday Book, where it appears as Bissopescote, meaning ‘King’s land’. Its history stretches even further, however – a charter of King Offa of Mercia from 792 records a grant of land belonging to five tenants in Luton to Saint Albans Abbey. The Domesday Book itself describes a manor of five hides, with ten villagers and three slaves making up thirteen households, suggesting a population of just over fifty. The manor was valued at forty shillings by the time of the Norman survey, down from sixty shillings before the conquest of 1066, when it had been held by Edwin, a man of Asgar the Constable. By 1718 the manor had passed to Arthur Wingate, who sold it in 1724 to John Crawley for £8,796, and it stayed within the Crawley family into the twentieth century.
Biscot Mill, Industry, and the First World War
Biscot Mill was a well-known local landmark from the sixteenth century until its demolition in 1938. Destroyed by lightning and rebuilt in 1844, it was operated during the nineteenth century by the Drewett family, who carried considerable influence in Luton. The mill later passed to Frank Scargill of Bramingham Shott, the estate now known as Wardown Park. Milling declined, the mill shut in 1925, and the structure was pulled down thirteen years later. Its name survives today in the Biscot Mill pub at the northern edge of the area. Industry also took root here in the twentieth century: Commer produced trucks at a factory on Biscot Road, and SKF, the Swedish ball bearing manufacturer, operated on Leagrave Road, employing many local people until closing in the 1970s. During the First World War, Biscot Camp occupied the area framed by Kennington Road, Biscot Road, Holland Road, and Leagrave Road, training thousands of Gunners and Drivers for the Royal Field Artillery. Notable figures connected to the camp include the author Dennis Wheatley and historian Basil Williams, who was awarded an OBE for his service there. The camp closed in November 1919.