78 High Town Road Luton

76 and 78 High Town Road June 2011

78 High Town Road has had a number of uses in the last hundred years. At the time of writing [2011] it is a hairdresser's salon.

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 78 High Town Road [DV1/R59/35] found it owned, like Number 80 next door, by Joseph W. Shackleton. The building was leased by Edwin George Trigg who paid £36 per annum of a seven year lease from 1927, the previous rent had been £26 per annum. He also had a premises at 154 Dunstable Road. He was a confectioner.

The shop lay in two areas measuring, respectively, 12 feet square and 9 feet by 6 feet. An office and a small reception room also lay on the ground floor. The store rooms lay upstairs. Outside lay a brick and slate W. C. and stores measuring 8 feet by 14 feet and a wooden garage.

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.

• 1903: Wooding & Walter, confectioners;
• 1906: Edwin George Trigg, confectioner;
• 1910: Edwin George Trigg, confectioner;
• 1914: Edwin George Trigg, confectioner;
• 1920: Edwin George Trigg, confectioner;
• 1924: Edwin George Trigg, confectioner;
• 1928: Walter Lionel Woolston, confectioner;
• 1931: Aubrey Barrett, confectioner;
• 1936: Aubrey Barrett, confectioner;
• 1939: L. G. Hucklesby;
• 1940: Arthur E. Waller, cycle dealer;
• 1950: A. E. Waller;
• 1960: Jack Durnford Limited, television and radio engineers and electrical good dealers;
• 1965: Jack Durnford Limited, television and radio engineers and electrical good dealers;
• 1968: Jack Durnford Limited, television and radio engineers and electrical good dealers;
• 1972: Jack Durnford Limited, television and radio engineers and electrical good dealers;
• 1974: Jack Durnford, television dealer;
• 1975: Jack Durnford, television dealer;
• 2011: Hair Connexions, hairdressers.