page_title: Dunstable
section_title: 17th century
hierarchical_section_title: Dunstable / History / 17th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo (by me, R. de Salis, Rodolph (talk)) of The Sugar Loaf coaching inn or public house, Dunstable, 2011.
context_page_description: Dunstable is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, East of England. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, 30 miles north of London. These geographical features form several steep chalk escarpments most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is the largest settlement in Central Bedfordshire and third largest in Bedfordshire behind Luton and Bedford. Along with Houghton Regis and the much larger town of Luton it forms the westernmost part of the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area.
context_section_description: Bedfordshire was one of the counties that largely supported the Roundheads during the English Civil War. Nearby St Albans in Hertfordshire was the headquarters of the Roundheads, and troops were occasionally stationed at Dunstable. The town was plundered by King Charles I's soldiers when passing through in June 1644, and Essex's men destroyed the Eleanor cross.
  The town's prosperity, and the large number of inns or public houses in the town, is partly because it is only one or two days' ride by horse from London (32 miles (51 km)), and therefore a place to rest overnight. There are two pubs which still have coaching gates to the side: the Sugar Loaf in High Street North, and the Saracen's Head in High Street South. The Saracen's Head is a name often given to pubs frequented by knights of the crusades. It is positioned considerably lower than the road to its front, witness to the fact that the road has been resurfaced a number of times during the lifetime of the pub.
caption: The Sugar Loaf coaching inn or public house, 2011.
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