Your Story: The Arms of Dunstable and The Legend of Dunne The Robber
You’ve read the tales of Robin Hood,
That fam’d outlaw and archer good,
Of Wallace bold, that Scotsman brave;
But not of Dunn, his horse, and cave;
Lo here the very tale you have.
It is often said that truth is stranger than fiction but in this case fiction, in the form of legend, is much more entertaining. The facts are that c1106 King Henry I planted a business centre on the crossing of Watling Street and the Icknield Way and included a small palace and an Augustinian priory. The site at that time was rough pasture belonging to the royal manor of Houghton (Regis). This was the foundation of Dunstable’s eventful history. Centuries earlier the Saxons had named the crossroads ‘Dun-staple’, the (boundary) post near the Downs.
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