Barton-Le-Clay Airfield was first established in 1935 to the west of the village, on farmland owned by the nearby Brook End Green Farm. Its first residents were the newly formed Luton Aircraft Limited and The Dunstable Sailplane Company, both companies co-owned by W.L. Manuel and C.H. Latimer-Needham. Before the mid-1960s Barton-Le-Clay was called Barton In The Clay but the name was changed to the current form by the Parish Council of the time.