Historic barn pulled down to make way for Houghton Regis shops

The Bedford Square shopping centre now stands on the site, and the Tithe Farm housing estate has been built over adjoining fields.

But All Saints Church still remains and its tower, seen in the background, will enable today’s Yesteryear readers to get their bearings.

On the right is the old Tithe Barn, thought to have been built by Abbot John Moore of St Albans Abbey between 1396 and 1401 (the abbey owned the Houghton church lands and the barn would have stored produce which farmers had to present as tithe payments).

The barn was a massive structure - so large that a laden farm-wagon could be driven straight in through its doors.

Unfortunately its historic importance did not protect it from being demolished in 1964 to make way for the shops. Its timbers were thought to be too rotten to preserve.

The picture is part of the Pat Lovering collection of historic photos.

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