BLHA member, Mr John Day, has spent the past five years developing a website containing old images of Ampthill where he lived for over 50 years. It’s a voluntary enterprise to reflect his interest in pictorial history and to keep him busy in retirement. Access to the site is totally free and there are no advertisements. The first version of the site contained 2,500 images and the second version had 6,000.
There was great interest and he was asked to consider including the surrounding area. This he has been doing over time and there are now over 15,000 images, many of which are from what was roughly the middle and western part of the old Mid-Beds area.
Mr Day is fortunate to have a good long-standing arrangement with the Bedford and Luton Archive and Records Service in Bedford that allows him to scan and publish from their collection of many thousands of Bedford Press glass plate negatives for the period 1938–1966 on the understanding that his site is 100% non-commercial and that access is free.
All the pictures can be seen at http://www.ampthillimages.com. Use the red and blue navigation buttons to choose between Ampthill or Around and About and then select from the lists of albums.