Yesteryear: Fond memories of Moores family store in Dunstable

The photo was taken in November 1988 when they were celebrating the 80th anniversary of their drapery business.

Fred’s amiable personality had made him well-known in Dunstable where he was an active member of the Methodist Church and the Rotary Club.

His father, Charles, founded the family business in a shop in High Street North, next door to the well-known local photographer Charles Smy.

It was close to the George Street corner which was very busy in the days when it led to the huge Waterlow’s printing factory.

Charles moved to High Street South in January 1917, taking over a shop which had previously been occupied by James Tibbett, who also had premises next door.

Mr Tibbett had a printing press in his cellar where he produced the town’s first newspaper, the Dunstable Chronicle, the direct ancestor of the Dunstable Gazette.

Photographs taken in the early 1930s show the shop’s frontage bearing the name A I Moore and Son (Alice Isabel Moore was Fred’s mother).

Moores eventually expanded into the main Tibbett shop, an historic building which by then had become a branch of Boots the Chemist.

Fred Moore died in 2008 aged 94 and his daughter Pauleen, who had managed the business after his retirement, died later the same year.

Like her father, Pauline was a champion of the town’s interests, becoming president of its Chamber of Trade in 1989 and organising a series of very popular fashion shows in the Queensway Hall.

The Moores shop closed shortly before her death and has remained empty ever since, becoming increasingly derelict.

Now, after years of negotiation, a plan of renovation has been agreed by the present owner and the Dunstable High Street Action Zone, with the support of Historic England.

Work has started on creating a new ground-floor shop and accommodation.

Fred Moore died in 2008 aged 94 and his daughter Pauleen, who had managed the business after his retirement, died later the same year.