How times have changed in Dunstable

They have lived since 1989 at 45 Tring Road, which is the bungalow seen in some isolation backing on to the Downs in the centre of the photo. The photographer would have been standing on the meadow near to what is now The Avenue.

The bungalow was built in 1929 for Reginald Dinsdale, whose name will be etched in the memory of some older Dunstablians. He was the school dentist in the days when a filling was a more painful experience than it is today.

The land alongside Tring Road was part of the vast estate owned by Earl Brownlow (Adelbert Wellington Brownlow) and the deeds to Mr and Mrs Munn’s property record its sale for development in 1917. Earl Brownlow owned a huge amount of land in the area, with Brownlow Rise in Totternhoe being just one reminder.

As the photo shows, the bungalow was one of the first properties to be built on the road which is part of the old Icknield Way. On the horizon can be see the row of chestnut trees, then newly-planted, which line the downs on the climb from West Street. The colour photo shows the scene today.

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