Dunstable Yesteryear - old photos of Whipsnade
Whipsnade is best known these days as the home of the famous zoo, established in 1931 around a hilltop farm. Before that, it was the quiet village seen in the photographs reproduced here on this souvenir postcard.
Cattle and sheep once grazed on the village common, as seen in the postcard’s centre picture.
The gates at either end of the common, which prevented the animals from straying, are still in position but the road across the land, once just a gravel track, is now very busy and today’s drivers will be very unlucky to find the route closed.
The villagers’ life was transformed by the opening of the zoo.
The little cottage (bottom left), once part of a large estate owned by a French nobleman, Charles Helios Dieudonne, became known as Ann’s Café in 1932 when its tenants started selling refreshments to visitors on their way to the zoo.
Today, much extended, the café has been transformed into a restaurant called Hunters Lodge.
The old Chequers public house, now a private dwelling, is seen on the edge of the photo of the village green.
The road across Whipsnade Downs (top right) appears to be the steep route down what is still known as Bison Hill.
The zoo’s herd of what are named buffaloes in America used to roam alongside the road.
(Yesteryear by John Buckledee, Dunstable & District History Society)