Houghton Regis, together with its contiguous neighbours of Dunstable and Luton, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area; this is a conurbation with a population over 286,000.

[4] Relics of Paleolithic man, such as flint implements and the bones of contemporary wild animals, suggest prehistoric settlement.

Maiden Bower has some of the ramparts showing through the edge of an old chalk quarry[5] where there are Bronze Age remains of an older fort.

[6] The Icknield Way Path passes through the parish on its 110-mile journey from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Knettishall Heath in Suffolk.

The Icknield Way Trail, a multi-user route for walkers, horse riders and off-road cyclists also passes through the parish.

[8] At that time it paid in tax the large amount of three pounds by weight and twenty shillings of blanch silver (to the King) and one ounce of gold for the Sheriff.

In 1689 they and those of neighbouring villages petitioned against the Bill that made it compulsory to wear woollen hats, pointing out that the straw-plaiters would be ruined and that the farmers also would suffer, as they now obtained good prices for their straw, and English wool not being suitable for hatmaking, they would not be in any way compensated.

[8] Bordered by the Chiltern Hills, the town was once a small village that had its character changed when it was earmarked for a massive "London overspill" estate in the 1950s and 60s.

The only remains of the manors, rectory land and cottage demesnes around the small village centre are names such as Tithe Farm Road.

In front of the existing closed All Saints Parish Church graveyard, facing onto the High Street, was a row of cottages, once the workhouses, complete with village lock-up at the end of the terrace.

The White House, the home of a Miss Freeman, a school teacher and aunt of Gary Cooper, who lived in the town during his youth, plus Jasper Perry's green grocer and Birds bakery stood on the High Street on the opposite side of the road to the church.

[16] Businesses located here include Disability Resource Centre, Centrebus, Hermes, DPD, Premier Cables and Connells Group.

[24] Academy Award Winning American Actor Gary Cooper lived, and went to school, in Houghton Regis.

[40][41] In mid-2018 ECL Civil Engineering[42] was contracted by Bidwell Land Ownership Group, a consortium of local landowners, to deliver the strategic Infrastructure and section 278 works necessary to develop the 166-hectare (410-acre) site which will eventually accommodate nearly 2000 new homes.