Dunstable Yesteryear: Driver's view of new bridge

This unusual snapshot of the bridge in Church Street, Dunstable, was taken from the passenger seat in a car (a Mini?) travelling towards the town centre.

The guess is that it dates from about 1962, when work on replacing the old railway bridge had just been completed. This was a huge undertaking and caused major traffic jams, but enabled the road to be made much wider.

The original bridge was built when the Dunstable to Luton railway was opened in 1858. The photo also shows, on the left, the First and Last pub whose original building was probably erected at about the same time as the railway’s opening. It would have been on what was then the edge of the town’s built-up area, hence its name.

On the right, the Tudor-style roof of the Bagshawe engineering firm can be seen. This was part of the artificial facia of the factory whose owner, Arthur Bagshawe, had bought the frontage of the Vienna Pavilion (part of a display created for a London exhibition) and used it to improve the view of his industrial buildings.

The wooden fence on the right is hiding the one-time site of the Dunstable Hat Renovating Company, whose building was later used as a milk bottling plant. The McDonald’s restaurant stands there today.

The First and Last closed in 2017 and the Bagshawe’s frontage was destroyed by fire in 1978. The 1962 bridge was replaced in 2010 when the Dunstable-Luton busway was built along the old railway track.

Yesteryear is compiled by John Buckledee, chairman of Dunstable and District Local History Society.