Dunstable Yesterday: When war was looming

This was High Street South, Dunstable, as photographed for a postcard mailed from the town to Penzance, Cornwall, on August 25 1939.

The pencilled message on the back was written by a couple saying they were having “a grand time” on a motorbike holiday despite travelling through some thunderstorms. They added that they were hoping that “the war will be averted”. That, alas, did not happen…the war with Germany began a few days later, on September 1.

The photo, looking towards Half Moon Hill, shows the Waggon and Horses (now renamed the Froth and Elbow) on the left. There’s a sign for the original Greyhound pub (whose replacement has now been demolished) just faintly visible further up the road, on what would be the corner of Great Northern Road.

The bus, with a Luton destination, is waiting outside a well-known garage and coach business owned by Tommy Blake. This was alongside what was once known as Kent’s Meadow – a field which would occasionally be the venue for a travelling circus as well as a stopping place for Romany gipsies. The field became an engineering factory for Grice and Young and today is a Hyundai dealership. Mr Blake’s garage has been replaced by a much-smarter building for Formula One Autocentres.

The postcard is the property of David Underwood.

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