Greenfield, United Kingdom

During the last decade of the 18th century, field enclosure was introduced, quite late on in history, and riots were instigated by local tenants who gathered to protest as their livelihood was under threat. Further threat to the local folk way of life would also come from the relatively late introduction of Protestant Christian thought in the area. Greenfield was expanded in the 19th century as a Methodist settlement alongside the Church of England settlement at Flitton. Temperance meetings were introduced and organised by newcomer nobility from Wrest Park, which led to the demise of two key local beerhouses that served the traditional folk community at the time.

During Victorian times, the local Lady Cowper visited Greenfield from Wrest Park, and described Greenfield as "an 'End'- 'a long straggly, fenny place with poor housing and rough people. Many were originally squatters and built makeshift houses". There was significant hardship at this time with some families taking bread from charity. There were still "Poor Rights" for the locals which allowed them to cut peat from the Moors for drying and burning. There were ten shareholders of Flitton Moor who paid 15 shillings a share and Greenfield Moor divided into 6 portions at 12 shillings each.

The local primary school (once located on School Lane) was built during the time of Church of England school development era to improve literacy and "elevate the local populace" from superstitious beliefs. This is now a private residence and the primary school was moved to Pulloxhill road during the late 1960s.

Regarding health care during the Victorian times, cottagers had to pay between 1 shilling and 10 shillings a year depending on the treatment, and the very poor who could not afford the fee would have to rely on local folk treatments and cures.

The area was once well known as a strawberry-producing area, and the fields were full of strawberry plants on either side of the main road. Carts would take the strawberries to Luton until the 1920s when a blight and a series of rook infestations destroyed the crop.

Mill Lane was named after the watermill that ground wheat and barley corn until the 1950s and was located at the bottom of the lane. The mill was fed by a millpond, now a stream at the west side of the lane, and the outflow ran downhill into a ford that filled up when the mill was grinding corn. When grinding stopped, the river was diverted using sluice gates around the back of the mill. The mill photographed was built in the mid 19th century, although the records of Dunstable Priory indicate that there has been a mill on the site since at least year 1200 that served Ruxox Augustinian Ruxox Cell and local community. After a series of local disputes, Greenfield Mill was unused and became derelict from 1959 to 1970 when it was demolished to make way for houses.

The bridleway at the bottom of Mill Lane is the scene of an unsolved murder. In 1939, a worker from the nearby Ruxox Farm was attacked with "maniac brutality" on his way to his lodgings at the White Hart Inn in Flitton List of unsolved murders in the United Kingdom. The silver coins of his wage packet had been taken but the rest was left with the smashed body. During the investigation, the local mill disputes and folk theories relating to ancient artefacts being removed from Ruxox farm (the site of both ancient Celtic and Roman shrines) were dismissed by the local police. Scotland Yard concluded that the murder was more likely committed by a passing vagrant. The verdict on police records was stated as "murder by person or persons unknown".