Ossett, Market Place c1955

Market place

I was brought up in Ossett from 1948 to 1966 when I joined the armed forces. I remember very well every Saturday afternoon we would go to the palladium picture house opposite the town hall. We did not have a bus station at that time so all buses would park around the town hall. Shops that spring to mind were Inghams sports on station road, Fords toy shop, and good fish and chip shops, and many others. Every Spring Bank Holiday we would all gather for the big parade from Gawthorp about a mile away to Ossett town center. With bands playing, horses, decorated wagons and fancy dress, it was a sight to see. There were public toilets underground in front of the town hall, they were closed about 1961 - not demolished, just covered over. As far as I am aware they are still there. We lived down Queens Drive and would walk home down Intake Lane, past the open cast mine and over the railway crossing. Gradually we saw the landscape change as housing estate's were built, Broadowler in this case. We would stand by the level crossing to watch the steam trains go by, but as everything else, Ossett train station closed. The nearest then was Wakefield. I have lots of good memories of Ossett to share as a child.

Chickenley Hall

Hello. My father lived at Chickenley Hall in the 1940s as he was adopted and brought to the home by the Armitage family. He eventually came to Scarborough, North Yorkshire and has started to write his memoirs which are still in production. What's been written so far has been put onto Facebook by myself. Anyone who would like to help with any info, please feel free to contact me.

Highfield House/Cottage /Earlsheaton

The best of my childhood memories are of Highfield House and Highfield Cottage in the late part of the 60s and early 70s. The summers always seemed hot and the days were long and happy. I come from a large family and we always had so much fun in the fields at the back of the house, rolling from the top of the hill almost down to the train tracks at the bottom, sunbathing or anything that would fill our day, we used to stay out for hours, only going home when it got dark or we were hungry. I remember when the fairground came, we could see it from the railings in our garden looking out over Dewsbury, you could hear the music playing and the bright lights flashing, or the voices and the screams of the people on the rides. I used to wish I was there but I was too young, the best I got was standing and watching over the railings with my sister, she actually got to go there as she was older. There was an old man, a friend of my Mum and Dad, who used to come visit us, he lived along by the Lowside Club, I think his name was Mr Townend, he used to bring Flake bars for us kids every time he visited, he also built cranes and things out of Meccano and used to bring them to show us when they were finished. I also remember waking up one morning and looking out of the bedroom window and seeing tights on the washing line, not just any old tights, but loads, one of every colour you can imagine, red, green, blue, yellow, orange, pink, black...you name it, they were there, my sister had decided to wash all of her tights and hang them out together, I'd never seen so many, let alone so many colours.... It's funny, the things you remember. I remember going to Earlsheaton Park with my brothers and sisters, that was when there was a paddling pool and swingboats there, I loved the swingboats..... also the old nursery at the bottom of the park which was supposedly haunted, probably something my brother made up to scare me. Earlsheaton has changed so much, as you would expect over the years, as you came to the top of the hill ,opposite the Park Hotel there used to be an archway, there was a chip shop there, also as you went along the road there was the bank which went all round the corner, a big, dark and what seemed like an imposing building to a five year old, all of this is now home to flats which carry on right up to where the shops start opposite Ossett Lane. I attended Earlsheaton Infants School and remember at one point having to go to classes in the church hall opposite for a while, I think it was due to refurbishment in the school, I remember hating it as it seemed so strange and dark in there compared to the classroom I was used to. Highfield House where I lived was built by the Preston family, it was a very large building and when I lived there it had been turned into bedsitting rooms or flats, we later moved into Highfield Cottage (which I loved), we were the last family to live there, and I still remember the day we moved out, it is a shame it no longer exists, and is the sort of place I would have loved to bring my own family up in. There are so many memories of growing up in Earlsheaton, I now live in Kent with my husband and children, but I will always have fond thoughts of growing up in such a great place.

The Cluntergate man

This old bloke used to haul this massive horse-wagon up Cluntergate, on a regular basis. I mean Cluntergate was this hill... 1 in 12 about... and this bloke used to haul this massive horse-drawn wagon up to the top and beyond. I never knew where he went, or where he came from. He wasn't very big, only a small, scrawny feller, but he never ceased to amaze me.

When I think I'm not getting a fair deal, I remember him... he was inspirational.

Evacuee

I was an evacuee in Middlestown in WWII, from East London. The first time was with my Mother and we were billeted in a small cottage which backed on to a barn belonging to a farm run by Mr and Mrs Cowan. We were there for approximately a year and my memories of that first year are rather blurred. We came back to London for a short time where our house was destroyed by a land mine and I was returned to Middlestown once again with a friend 'Kenneth Turbot'. We spent a happy year there this time living in the farmhouse with Mr and Mrs Cowan and their two daughters. We helped out with the farm work out of school hours whilst Mr Cowan was working in a coal mine. The farm was situated next to a large dairy farm as far as I can remember. I made many friends but the only name I can recall is 'Ginger' a lad who lived in the cottages along the road from the farm. I can remember the cross roads at the centre of the village with the Co-op on one corner and somewhere along there a cinema? Getting my hair cut for threepence and walking across the road and up the hill to school.