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80 High Town Road Luton

80 High Town Road June 2011
80 High Town Road June 2011

80 High Town Road has had a number of users, chief among them a corn store and seed merchant and a dry cleaning shop. At the time of writing [2011] it is home to a television and videooutlet and repair facility.

The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value. The valuer visiting 80 High Town Road [DV1/R59/35] found it owned, like 78 High Town Road next door, by Joseph W. Shackleton and leased by Hilda Blanche Clarke who paid £40 per annum in rent on a fourteen year lease from 1920. She was a seed merchant.

The shop lay on the corner of Welbeck Road and measured 12 feet by 17 feet 6 inches. Beneath lay a cellar measuring 12 feet by 14 feet. Two ground floor store rooms measured 10 feet by 15 feet and 13 feet by 14 feet respectively. Two first floor stores measured 10 feet by 7 feet and 13 feet by 20 feet respectively. A bedroom lay over one of the store rooms at the rear. A washhouse outside measured 5 feet by 10 feet.

Directories for Bedfordshire were published every few years from 1839, for example, the beginning of the 20th century has directories for 1903, 1906, 1910 and 1914. Countywide directories ceased to be published during the Second World War, the last for Bedfordshire being in 1940. Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service has directories just for Luton for 1939, 1950, 1960, 1965, 1968, 1972, 1974 and 1975. The first street numbers in High Town Road begin to appear in directories in 1885.

  • 1894: Thomas Shackleton & Sons, drapers;
  • 1898: Thomas Shackleton & Sons, drapers;
  • 1903: Herbert Howard, photographer;
  • 1906: Herbert Howard, photographer;
  • 1910: William Henry Anstee, corn and flour dealer;
  • 1914: Oxborrow & Gascoigne, corn and flour dealers;
  • 1920: Mrs H. B. Clark, seed merchant;
  • 1924: Mrs H. B. Clark, seed merchant;
  • 1928: Mrs. Hilda B. Clark, seed merchant;
  • 1931: Mrs. Hilda B. Clark, seed merchant;
  • 1936: High Town & District Corn Stores Limited;
  • 1939: High Town & District Corn Stores Limited;
  • 1940: High Town & District Corn Stores Limited;
  • 1950: High Town & District Corn Stores Limited;
  • 1960: Home Laundry (receiving office);
  • 1965: Holly Laundry Limited (receiving office); Home Laundry (receiving office); H. L. Cleaners (receiving office);
  • 1968: Holly Laundry Limited (receiving office); Home Laundry (receiving office); H. L. Cleaners (receiving office);
  • 1972: Home Laundry (receiving office); H. L. Cleaners (receiving office);
  • 1974: Home Laundry (receiving office); H. L. Cleaners (receiving office);
  • 1975: Home Laundry (receiving office); H. L. Cleaners (receiving office);
  • 2011: TV and Video Repairs and Sales.