Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has notes on Firbanks Pit compiled following an interview with Raymond Vivian Willis in December 1991 [CRT130/Lei57]. The pit lay on the west side of Billington Road and immediately south of today's Chartmoor Road right against the parish boundary with Billington. The notes are as follows.

"The Firbanks pit adjoined Spinney Pool. It was about a quarter of a mile long and 200-300 yards wide".

"About 1832/3 a Mr. Firbanks bought a large field in Grovebury Road (previously "Chatterbowl Lane" and later Union Street) and dug out all the sand there for five years. Much of the sand was used in the construction of the London North Western Railway at and near Leighton Buzzard including its railway station. The resultant large pit filled with water and was used for fishing for many years. After the Second World War London County Council used it as a place to dump rubbish and filled the pit".