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Drighlington
Drighlington maps
Historic maps of Drighlington and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Drighlington maps
Drighlington photos
We have no photos of Drighlington, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Birstall| Tong| Morley| Batley| Heckmondwike| Cleckheaton| Farsley| Roberttown| Dewsbury| Bradford| Kirkstall Abbey| Calverley| Greengates| Headingley| Horsforth| Apperley Bridge| Leeds| Ossett| Far Headingley| Shipley| Saltaire
Drighlington area books
Displaying 1 of 28 books about Drighlington and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Drighlington
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West Yorkshire memories
An Industrial Village
Having grown up in Birstall I have a fondness for this little market town in West Yorkshire, situated approximately 8 miles from Leeds and centrally placed for easy access to other major towns Bradford, Huddersfield and Wakefield.
Fifty years ago Birstall was a thriving village, where everyone knew everybody else (and their business!). There were several mills in the area, Birstall Carpet Company, Holton's, Charles Sheards to name but a few.
The shopping centre was busy and there was a variety of shops, unlike today when the centre seems to be full of beauty parlours, hairdressers and takeaways, with traditional shopkeepers struggling to earn a living.
In the market place stands a statue of Joseph Priestley, who discovered oxygen. He was born in Fieldhead. Birstall also has links with the Brontes, as Charlotte often stayed at Oakwell Hall and Brookroyd House and based her book "Shirley" on the area.
Until the 1990's not much had been written about Birstall. I then decided to write... Read more
Cinema on A Saturday as A Boy
I grew up in Driglington late 50s/ 60s and remember going to watch Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy, now that was another lifetime ago.
As I got a bit older lots of us drig lads used to visit a coffee shop in the main street - cannot remember its name, and met lots of Birstall girls there. I also remember the first 3d movie I saw there, it was the House of Wax, we had to wear those red and green glasses.
Birstall Life, 1970
Does anybody remember Clifford the milkman, he had a barrel in a yard that he used as a dog kennel in the village. Or the Co-op in the village, I think it was that sold record players and I think shirts folded up, and kept in drawers behind the counter. I was 4 at the time of these memories. The dry cleaners that you could get high on walking past at the bottom of North Terrace. Singing 'Lily the Pink' at the working men's club. My dad Ernest Shaw played darts for the Hare and Hounds, if anybody remembered him he died in 1972. Liptons shop in the village. The fish and chip shop near Raikes Lane infant school, they went to Australia from the chippy. Did anybody reading this go to that school in 1970 -72? I still have the card you all signed when I left. Does anybody remember Dr Chong's in the village, didn't he always give you a lollypop?
Jack Garside And Mucky Minnie
Does anyone remember 'Spring-heeled Jack' and 'Mucky Minnie', the local tramp and his partner from the market place? Well, we do, and we also bought his house to sell on. My husband still has the scars from the flea bites to prove it.
ROOMS LANE ST BERNARD''s
I was born on Room's Lane in one of three cottages near to the train station. My father worked for Roland Humphry. We moved to St Bernard's not long after I was born, the house was the previous horseman's home, My dad worked with his horse most of the time and I would sit at the end of the field and wait for dad to finish, when I was able to have a ride home on her. St Bernards had two rows of houses with a shop which seemed to sell everything. When it got close to bonfire night all the children of St Bernards would get together and go chumping. When the big night came, the shop would stay open and we would have pie and peas and jacket taties. When you look around it's hard to believe that there was a train station, a mill and the mill houses. I have just learnt today that the old chapel at... Read more
Ducking Stool
When I was a small child, I remember the remains of an old ducking stool by the large pond which was at the Queen Street side of the park.
End of an Era
In 1944 I was a 13 year old pupil at Morley Grammar School. One beautifully sunny Sunday evening I walked from my house at 16 Albion Street (now Morrison's carpark) and about 40 yards East of the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene (since rebuilt). I climbed the old quarry tip at the junction with Corporation Street -now the site of the police station I believe.
From this high viewpoint I looked out across Morley, and saw that the textile mill chimneys were beginning to smoke, as the "engine men" started stoking up the boilers ready for the Monday morning return to work. I believe all Morley mills at that time were steam powered, so the Sunday evening firing up was a ritual with which we had grown familiar throughout the growth of Morley's 'shoddy' wool trade development. I started counting the smoking chimneys and reached over 40 before returning home.
Now, I wish I had recorded the names of all... Read more
