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A rare glimpse of St Mary's Parish Church from Park Square, as seen in October 1957. Shops in Church Street and Park Square were being demolished to make way for the final phase of the building of the new college of further education, now the University of Bedfordshire Luton campus. Behind the church is the old power station.


A second view from October 1957 of the Park Square demolition.The old modern school/technical school can be seen to the right.


Luton Air Training Corps Band, proudly wearing new berets,on parade outside Waller Street Methodist Church in December 1945 before attending a service there. The view is along Waller Street to Bute Street.


This was the bullet-proof car used by Nazi top brass Hermann Goering during his years as Hitler's deputy and commander of the Luftwaffe in the Second World War. On this occasion, in April 1948, it was on show in the Dickinson and Adams car showroom in Bridge Street, raising funds at 6d a look for the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association. Mayor of Luton Councillor W.J. Edwards is seen opening the exhibition.


Luton Girls Choir singing Land Of Hope And Glory on a stage at Luton Hoo during a visit by Winston Churchill on Saturday, June 26, 1948. Churchill had addressed an audience estimated at 100,000 strong at a rally and fete organised by eastern area Conservative and Unionist associations on the Hoo estate.


Cheapside and Luton town centre in the summer of 1921, captured from the water tower of the then Brown's flour mills, off Guildford Street.The vista includes the Corn Exchange, to the left, and King Street Congregational Church, to the right.


Luton's Farley Hill estate under construction in July 1948.The tall building to the left was the storage barn of the former Farley Farm that was being demolished. Work on the £3 million estate had begun in October 1946.


A band made up of girls of Luton High School playing everything from violins to combs and paper at a garden party in the Alexandra Avenue school's grounds in June 1936.


Feather sorters at the Glaser and Harris factory in North Street, High Town, in May 1952. Chicken feathers were used to fill bedding for the British market, while duck and goose feathers were used for exported bedding.


The Royal Welsh Fusiliers, led by mascot Billy the goat, march past the saluting base in Ashburnham Road before a St David's Day celebration at Dallow Road Recreation Ground in March 1945. Billy was followed by Pioneers in their white buckskin aprons and gauntlets.


Luton's growing Welsh population opened its own Welsh-speaking chapel in Cardigan Street on May 24, 1951. Mr J. R. Thomas, from London, was handed the keys by church secretary Mr W.H. Evans to perform the opening ceremony. The building was previously the Cardigan Street Methodist Church.


Visibility was at times virtually nil due to fog and temperatures fell to nearly minus 12 degrees C in Luton in December 1946. This was a view of the Corn Exchange on one of the more tolerable days at that time.


Families of people working for the China Inland Mission arriving at Luton Airport in June 1951 after fleeing Mao Tse Tong's communist takeover in the Far East country. Forty-seven men, women and children flew in on an Eagle Aviation aircraft, one of the first long-haul flights to land at Luton.


Pipers march past as two long queues form for one of the first ever Sunday cinema performances in Luton - at the Palace in Mill Street at 3pm on May 5, 1946. Five of Luton's then six movie houses opened their doors for a first Sunday screening, the Palace showing The Spanish Main, starring Paul Heinreid and Maureen O'Hara. An estimated 2,500 cinema-goers watched Sunday films in Luton that day. Churches, which had opposed Sunday showings, reported no fall in the number of worshippers.


George Street and Luton town centre in October 1946. Three negatives merged to form one panorama show a vista from the power station cooling towers to the left that still carry some of their wartime camouflage across to the Corn Exchange, the brewery and the Savoy (ABC) cinema. Waller Street Methodist Church, the Plait Halls, the Grand Theatre and St Mary's Parish Church are among other landmark buildings caught on camera.


High Street, Toddington, in March 1937. The Angel Inn is seen to the left, on the junction with Luton Road.


The Marsh Farm estate now covers this farmland photographed by a Luton News photographer in the summer of 1946. Warden Hill is on the skyline.


This odd looking car was nicknamed The Coffin and was being driven to Luton's Midland Road railway station in October 1957. The Hunter Harrier, as it was properly known, was built by Hunting Percival Aircraft at Luton Airport and was designed primarily for use in military airborne operations. It caused a sensation at the Farnborough Air Show in 1957...


Powered by a 650cc BSA twin-cylinder engine, it could carry four personnel at a top speed of 70mph. It could also be assembled and dismantled within a minute...


And the whole machine could be loaded as a box measuring 20 inches by 28 inches by 104 inches on to a plane - or, as in this instance, a train ready to be taken to Manchester to be featured on BBC TV's What's New programme, hosted by McDonald Hobley.