Your Stories

Diane Norman (wife of Barry Norman)

"Dunstable gave me my first interest in history, a market town growing up as it did on the Roman Watling Street where it crossed the Icknield Way. And the "Sugar Loaf" inn with that tall hat-likereproduction above its door showed me what shape sugar was sold in during the past. And the Downs, they were so romantic to go wandering in hand-in-hand with a handsome young man; I can smell the freshness of their air even now, and see the hundreds of butterflies that flew up under our feet.
We can't let a town with a history that probably goes back before Julius Caesar die. Not Dunstable. Please, please."
 
Diana Norman wife of Barry Norman Author and film critic

Email from Nigel Geary - 22nd August 2010

"My mum lived in church walk which is now the car park her memories of church street and the shops and pubs that were they at the time starting at the bottom as she said I think she might mean near the parish hall her memories are of so we start are walk and pass Mrs Underwood she used to run a grocery shop she also remembers a second but cannot remember the name who ran it.

Also we pass stebings the tailor and the post office in church street we are still walking upwards towards the crossroads she as memories of an houses up an archway also a paper shop and a bakers shop that was owned by a family called ironmongers and a cobblers but again she cant remember the name of the shop you had Rixons the antique dealer Mrs Williams the hairdresser and Thorn&Rixs the estate agents and farmers the record shop.

And now we cross to the other side of Church Street on the corner where the Nat West stands stood the Red lion Hotel and walking down from there you pass the Red lion Tap and where the eyesore the Winston Churchill pub stands is the white Horse she remembers a large boulder that used to be outside the pub it was believed to be from the stone age but back way before we had cars people who used to own horses who were a bit worse for ware would use the stone to mount they horses on it as a lad I do remember a large stone somewhere in the high street could this have been that. We are continuing are walk we pass Powell’s the Bike shop and this is where you take your accumulator’s to be charged a form of battery as we pass this shop we have Stubbs the fish chip shop. Continuing are walk past Ashton school we pass Dr Ashton’s house now the old palace lodge continue your walk and there is Kingsbury stable now the Norman King pass the stables and you come across the alms houses owned by the church then next door to them is the Royal Oak which are now the old peoples bungalows I’m bit tired now I’m popping in for a pint now but if you continued your walk you would have come across Bagshaws. What makes me sad is that property developers and the council in the sixties and seventies then got it wrong and destroyed this town from the description please don’t let it happen again it was a quite pretty town these memories belong to our mum

Nigel

Edna (Nash) Geary"

From Eileen James[re Banks]

"For many years as a child i lived with my grandparents in Cross st West,off west st,we had a Bakers on one side who sold the best doughnuts ive ever tasted to this day .The other side of the road was a Pub.Ihave tried in vein to find pics of the street where i grew up but as of yet have had no luck.It is now called St Marys Gate and the Police Station is on the side where the Bakers once stood.
We had a guy called Darkie who stood outside the Nags Head selling newspapers in all weathers he was always there.
There was also a local Tramp who was known as Coal Black Charlie but we as children called him OMO, boy was he a good runner,he was always after us.
 He would knock on my Nannys door and demand tea as we stood in hiding
Just a couple of my many fond memories of Dunstable when it was a really busy and happy town"
    Regards Eileen James

Email from Richard Hubbard - 3rd December 2009

"Hi Sharon

Firstly, I think you and the team are doing a wonderful job, and I just hope you're able to keep up the energy currently going into the Facebook and website!
 
Although I now live in Milton Keynes, and have done this past 30 years, my family were "Old Dunstablians", and go back many generations in the town. We lived in Winfield Street, just down from The Globe pub, and as a child, well I remember hearing the 'old Joanna' playing, and many voices singing, as it got closer to closing time!
 
In the 1950's/60s, opposite us, on the corner of Winfield Street and Edward Street, was Phil Mead's butchery; where, at 15, I became a butcher's boy, and cycled round the town on my delivery bike with customer's orders. We always got our meat 'ration' (i.e. what we could afford that week) from either Phil Mead's or Bob Bunker's butchery, which was just round the corner on the corner of Edward Street and Union Street. Opposite Mead's, in Edward Street, was Daisy Dudley's grocers/greengrocery, and a few doors along one way was Creamer's bakery, and the other way was Doll Bowers grocery. Dear old Doll Bowers had turned her "front room" into a shop (or that's what it looked like) many years before, and sold a small range of groceries and dairy products, like the best cheddar cheese we'd ever tasted! She used to keep open all hours, and would sit in her "back room" watching television - especially Coronation Street when Ena Sharples was on, with her living room door open so she could see the shop, and she'd call out to you "Wait a minute while this finishes!" and you'd stand there maybe ten minutes before she'd come to serve... but no-one cared in those days, we were just glad of a shop open if we'd run out of tea or sugar!
 
Within a couple of hundred yards of our home we also had Eric Lovegrove's greengrocery in Union Street, and Mrs Cuss's wet-fish & fish & chip shop on the corner of Stuart Street and Union Street. There was another "chippy" down Union Street near the High Street - he was only the tiniest shop and on a cold winter's evening the queue could easily be outside the shop and we'd all be dying to get into the warmth!
 
So all in all, when I was a lad, we hardly needed to "go down the town", as we had everything we could want on our doorstep. A far cry from today, for as far I as know, not a one of these businesses survive, even as something else. It had been my Great-Great Granddad who had startedthe bakery which became Creamers in Edward Street, and my Great Granddad who started the grocery/greengrocery which became Daisy Dudley's.
 
All these dear folks, Doll Bowers, Eric Lovegrove, Daisy Dudley, would never have been allowed by modern councils, and I can remember the only public telephone nearby was inside the back door of the bakery, so no matter what time of day or evening (reasonable hours!) we could go across and knock-up Mrs Creamer to ask to use the phonebox. Afterwards, we'd often buy a cake or a loaf of bread that was still on their shelves... Stale cake? When folks earn very little no-one cares to ask how long that Chelsea Bun has sat on the shelf, if the shop owner says you can have it for a few coppers! Creamer's even used to roast many people's Christmas turkey in their bread ovens when I was a kid! Few of us had a large enough oven for a family size bird, and Creamer's would put them in to roast after the last bread-bakes - where would you find that sort of service these days?
 
Of course, they were hard, cold, penniless, days, too. I certainly wouldn't want to return to those times, except for the spirit of neighbourliness and great customer service, as they call it these days. For instance, when the Great Freeze of '62/63 was in full swing, the only tap in the neighbourhood which still ran freely was in Doll Bowers alleyway - an outside tap wrapped in a bit of old potato sacking - the only tap running for hundreds of yards around... so Doll had a queue of people patiently waiting in line, down her alleyway, and round the in front of her shop every evening at tea time, and again later, after tea, as everyone filled up saucepans and jugs, even hot-water bottles and milk-bottles - anything that could hold enough water for the morning wash and a breakfast cuppa tea! That lasted right through till March in Winfield Street! Good old Doll, she did get a few bob out of it, though, as folks would pop in for a chocolate bar or a bag of peanuts (and a warm-up!) while they waited in line for water!
 
Sorry - bit of a ramble... but I so love Dunstable, my home town. I just so hope that the Council take note of your campaign and pull the town round. I could write loads more about the lovely old pubs along the High Street, the books that inspired us kids which we'd buy from 'Keeps', on the corner of West Street (and was always known as "Keeps Corner"), the old story that was told us kids that if we waited long enough outside Chew's House, when the Town Hall clock struck a certain hour the two "black-boys" statues above the doorway, would change hands holding their plates! Hours I've stood waiting for it to happen! That was when The Little Theatre was the town's library and we still had gas lamps for most street lighting... and when those lights would all go out long before midnight, and there's be hardly a whisper of traffic noise along the High Street with only the occasional long-distance lorry trundling through the town that late at night! Happy days!
 
Yours sincerely, Richard Hubbard"

Email from Robert Wright - 12th December 2009

"Hi everybody,
 
My name is Robert Wright and although I've lived in the USA for about twenty years I still regard Dunstable as my home town. I was born in Westfield Rd, right next to The Eight Bells pub. We moved from there to Chiltern Rd when I was a year old though.
 
Like Mr Hubbard we didn't have to go far for our groceries because we had Ron Astlings shop and Cluttons right on the other side of the road from us. Not far to go for a paper or a bag of chips either. Tarrys and Sams fish and chip shop were right opposite. I don't know if any of those businesses are there now since it's been a long time since I've been home. The email from Richard Hubbard really stirred up some memories for me and even bought a little lump to my throat as I thought of friends (and enemies!!) and family who are no longer with us. Playing football on the green outside our house, and also our "away" games when we played against the kids of Drovers Way or Ashcroft. Good days!! To think we had to walk a couple of miles to school in those days. Kids here in the US can't believe that since they get picked up and dropped off by busses!
 
I heartily endorse your efforts to restore the pride that we used to have in the town of Dunstable and hope you will receive the support of many others in your efforts.
 
Sincerely, Robert Wright."