Pictures capture a moment in time

Even the fir trees on the left remain – or, at least, new ones have been planted.

The photographer was looking in the direction of High Street North.

Just around the corner on the right would have been Chiltern Road School, which became the studio for Chiltern Radio in October 1981 and then Heart FM.

The lady walking down the road, secure in the knowledge that very little traffic would surprise her from behind, is very close to the turning into Cross Street North, which ‘crosses’ from Chiltern Road to Beale Street.

The ‘North’ was there to avoid confusion with the old Cross Street West which once linked St Mary’s Street and West Street.

Richard Walden, in his book Streets Ahead, says that the first section of Chiltern Road, between Union Street and High Street North, was built sometime before 1866.

The rest of the route, leading to Dunstable Cemetery in West Street, was originally an unmade track known locally as Cemetery Road.

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