yesteryear

These wary, puzzled and bemused pensioners were being shown the latest new-fangled gadget at a demonstration in what looks like the Dunstable Old People’s Welfare Association premises at Cordova, West Street, in the early 1950s.

The rule those days was not to stand too close to the screen and not to look upwards at its wavy lines.

Who know what would have happened if you did!

The bearded gent talking about the polished wood box with its tiny black-and-white screen is Arthur Chattell, a well-known Dunstable personality who owed the Cycle and Wireless store at 40 High Street North, Dunstable, now the Oxfam charity shop.

He was a real technology pioneer in those early days, introducing Dunstablians to the delights of reel-to-reel tape recorders and stereo record players. It was his shop which provided the town’s first public address system in the 1930s.

He was a member of Dunstable Rotary Club and recorded all the talks given to the club.

The tapes were then given to Gazette reporters for their interest...all with the speakers’ consent, of course.

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