YESTERYEAR HIGHLIGHTS
A selection of images from our popular weekly Yesteryear feature in the Luton News.
Several readers asked if anyone remembered Jonah the Whale that had visited Luton in 1954. This was a Luton News picture taken of the visit to Popes Meadow on Tuesday, April 27, 1954. The creature, harpooned off Trondheim in Norway in September 1952, was 65ft long and weighed 69 tons. It formed a touring exhibition that travelled around the country on what was believed to be the world's largest lorry. In 1970 a second similar fin whale went on show in Dunstable.
Film star Margaret Lockwood came to Luton on Monday, February 16, 1948, to see the town at work. She was greeted at the Town Hall by mayor Cllr W.J. Edwards before visiting Skefko, Vauxhall and Electrolux and two cinemas - the Odeon in Dunstable Road and the Palace in Mill Street, whose manager, Mr S. Davey, had arranged the tour.
Luton was celebrating on April 1, 1964, when the town at last gained county borough status. This George Mossman carriage formed a Blundells float, one of many in a procession through the town that ended at St Mary's Parish Church for a thanksgiving service conducted by the Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Rev Michael Gresford Jones.
"Luton's biggest panto with 40 West End artistes," boasted the adverts for the Grand Theatre's 1951 pantomime, Cinderella. Violet Plowman played Cinders, Nancy Gabrielle was Prince Charming and Pat Lennox was Buttons, who were supported by Dorothy Conn's "Sunshine Babes and Adorables". And Cinders went to the ball in "the original television electric coach" pulled by J. Batt's miniature Shetland ponies.The Grand, opened by Lily Langtry in December 1898, closed as a theatre in May 1957.
Luton Town's first trial match of the 1948-49 season gave the Luton News photographer a chance to take a back seat and get an overview of the Kenilworth Road ground. A crowd of nearly 4,000 saw the Whites - the Hatters probables - beat the Reds - the challengers for first team places - 5-1. Duggan, Owen, W. Burtenshaw, Shanks and Charlie Burtenshaw scored for the Whites and Brennan for the Reds.The adverts-strewn Bobbers Stand was later replaced by executive boxes.
The sewing room of clothing manufacturer James Jamieson (Dunlace) Ltd in Bute Street in January 1950.
The Bishop of Bedford laid the foundation stone
of St Christopher's Church, Round Green, on October 10, 1936.
In the background is the Hitchin Road-Stockingstone Road junction.
The end of more than 200 glorious years. Stockwood House, built in 1740 by John Crawley, was demolished in the spring of 1964. All but some outbuildings were knocked down and these now form part of Stockwood Museum.
The largest of three turbines at Luton's electricity works in St Mary's Road in June 1966. The power station opened in 1901 and was finally demolished in 1972.
The band of the 5th Beds and Herts Regiment leading a parade of Territorials and members of the British Legion through Market Hill following a Remembrance Sunday service at St Mary's Parish Church on November 15, 1936.
A cross 10ft high and weighing 176lb that had begun a round-the-world journey from Jerusalem the previous Good Friday is carried along George Street on Saturday, July 16, 1949. The procession went to the Moor for a service attended by many local Roman Catholics before it continued its journey, via Dunstable.
Some of the 400 members of the Commer Cars Social Club who gathered at Luton's LMS station in June 1936 for an outing to Southend.
A new batch of Vauxhall Velox cars being driven along George Street on their way to dealers around the UK in August 1948. At the time 75 per cent of the model went for export.
Against the imposing backdrop of St Mary's Parish Church, Luton Choral Society opened its 80th season with a concert attended by only 300 people on December 4, 1950.
The choir of St Mary's process into church for a Good Friday service on April 7, 1950. Behind them in St Mary's Road is a long-vanished landscape that included the power station cooling towers, the old fire station and the former church hall.
A musical ride on bicycles performed by forms IVb and IIIb was one of the more unusual items performed by pupils of Dunstable Grammar School on a rainy June afternoon in 1945. It was part of the school's third physical training and gymnastics display.
Reports of elephants seen in Station Road, Luton, was no April Fool's joke on April 1, 1950. The Bertram Mills Circus came to town and animals such as elephants and camels were walked from the railway station to the circus site in Kingsway.
Sir Frederick Mander, chairman of Beds County Council, officially opening Farley Hill Primary School, near the junction of Whipperley Way and North Drift Way, on May 1, 1952. It was the eighth new school to open in Luton since the Second World War, and was built on a seven acre site designed to cater eventually for 480 pupils.
Big crowds greeted the annual arrival of Santa at Partridge's toy store in Chapel Street. This occasion was in November 1957.
A traditional Christmas scene at Christ Church School in Buxton Road, Luton, in December 1951. About 80 pupils took part in the school nativity play, entitled To Bethlehem.
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Weather for Luton
Friday 10 February 2012
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Temperature: -6 C to 1 C
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