Shops

AMPTHILL. Pecks (drapers/furnishings), Market Square. Wire system. Shop closed in 1980. Bedfordshire Country Life Magazine, No.4, Spring 1999

ARLESLEY . Co-op. "I used to 'volunteer' to go shopping with my grandmother to the Co-op in Arlesey in the mid-50's, just to see those in action... I even got to send the cash carrier once, I recall." Stampboards.com website

BEDFORD. E.Braggins & Sons (drapers and outfitters), 28-32 Silver Street. "Group member Graham Wild remembers this system [Rapid Wire] at E. Braggins & Sons Ltd. .. in the 1940s and 50s." Railway & Canal Historical Society. Occasional Paper No. 14 (rev. 2009)
• "E. Braggins and Son remained in its two Bedford stores after the death of the founder. They were active in the 1940s and 50s but stopped operating as a family stores in 1968 (the premier store was renamed Beales in 1982). The firm sold high value products as  well, such as mink jackets and cocktail dresses for ladies. The store was a source of fascination for young technophiles because it used the cash railway system that was probably installed in the 1930s. Money taken at tills was put into golden metallic canisters that were locked onto railway trolleys that winged their way with much rattling along long, open metal tracks pulled by a system of wires to the cash office in the dark recesses of the building." Winslow History website
• "Pneumatic Tube Transport, replaced this system in later years... The system remained in operation until the late 1960s." Foster Hill Road Cemetry website

BEDFORD. Tom Coombs, The Arcadium. "A novelty in this place of business is a cash railway. THere are four stations from which cash may be sent." Bedfordshire Times, 21 Dec. 1906, p. 4

BEDFORD. Electricity showroom. About 1933 a pneumatic tube system was installed under the High Street to connect the electricity showroom with the Borough Treasurer's office so that bills could be paid at either. The office was demolished in 1940 for bridge widening. C.Collard in This England, Summer 1975

DUNSTABLE. [A butcher's], Union Street. Cash carrier. Carole Hogan in posting to Facebook

HOUGHTON REGIS. Co-op. Cash carrier. Christine Tookey in posting to Facebook.

LUTON. Blundells (drapers), George Street/Cheapside. Pneumatic tube system. Eric Meadows
"The new system of Lamson pneumatic dispatch tubes has lately been installed in the large business premises of Messrs. Blundell Bros... The new tubes supersede the old cash-desk method of dealing with takings at the counter, and from the eight stations in convenient places about the shop, the money pours into one central office upstairs from rows of brightly-polished pneumatic tubes, of which there are 16 radiating all over the building. A 2 horse-power gas engine in the basement works the 'blower'. In 4 seconds the cash is received from the most distant station, and the little carriers, containing the receipt, fly back as quickly, by merely dropping them into a hole." Luton Times and Advertiser, 18 Apr. 1902, p. 5

LUTON. Co-op. Rapid Wire system. Eric Meadows

LUTON. Industrial Co-operative Society, Bridge Street. "The ceilings also carry the vacuum tubes that take the customers' cash from the department floor to a central cash office in the old building - and return the change." Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle, 25 Sep. 1958, p. 5

LUTON. W.L. Gates (grocer and ironmonger), 49-51 George Street. "A 5-station cash railway .. to be sold by auction." Luton Times, 25 Jun. 1915, p. 1

LUTON. Henry Gibbons & Son, 'The Fashion Centre'. "Drapery - Young lady required as cashier. Lamson cash railway system." Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle, 5 July 1917, p.1

LUTON. Oakleys (family grocers), Chapel Street. Rapid Wire system in 1930s. Eric Meadows