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Clayton West

Clayton West photos (17 available)

Old photo of Clayton West

Clayton West maps (2 available)

Old map of Clayton West

Clayton West books (10 available)

Clayton West memories

Ackroyd coffee bar

Clayton West, Church Lane c1960

Just down the road from the Shoulder of Mutton pub was Ackroyds coffee bar. In the 60s we young ones would meet, listen to the juke box, drinking frothy coffee.
The horse and cart outside the pub belonged to Herman Wood the local milkman. The cart was a daily sight outside the pub.
Contributed by David Johnson

West Yorkshire memories

Ackroyd coffee bar

Clayton West, Church Lane c1960

Just down the road from the Shoulder of Mutton pub was Ackroyds coffee bar. In the 60s we young ones would meet, listen to the juke box, drinking frothy coffee.
The horse and cart outside the pub belonged to Herman Wood the local milkman. The cart was a daily sight outside the pub.
A memory of Clayton West contributed by David Johnson

Childhood memories

I was born 1949 in Huddersfield and lived in Skelmanthorpe until 1970. I was delighted to see the photos of Skelmanthorpe taken in the fifties. It brought back wonderful childhood memories of things that I'd already forgotten. I remembered going to Bower's Newsagent to pay for our papers once every week, the chemist shop next door and then there was a greengrocer nearby called Wraggs if I remember rightly. Also a small pretty little shop called Lawton's who sold mirrors and plates etc. We also visited the Savoy picture house once a week although the films were over one year old before they got to Skelmanthorpe. It didn't matter because no one had colour TV in those days so the picture ...read more here
A memory of Skelmanthorpe contributed by Angela Reichert

Old Times

Darton, Church Street c1960

I was born in Station Rd, went to school there, went to Empire picture house Sat mat.
A memory of Darton contributed by lesley wainwright

Extracts From Clayton West & West Yorkshire books

Wakefield, Bull Ring c1965

Looking towards the Bull Ring from Union Street, we see (right) the rebuilt Strafford Hotel and the former shops, now a café bar. At the centre is the magnificent Cloth Hall building at the head of Cross Street. The Bull Ring is now partly pedestrianised, offering a relaxed starting point for a walk to the cathedral.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".

Wakefield, the Bull Ring c1960

The Market Place was renamed the Bull Ring in 1910, to recall the ‘sport’ of bull baiting a century before. In the centre of the Market Place, a busy intersection even before cars were invented, was the Toll Booth (demolished 1857) and the Boy and Barrel Inn (removed 1898). The dominant row of shops has been modernised, but the bus station (centre right), which opened on September 1952, has now been moved a hundred yards to the east.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".

At the head of Cross Street the market cross once stood, from 1707 to 1866. Cross Street is now traffic free down to the cathedral and Kirkgate. The magnificent Grand Clothing Hall, left, remains. Designed in an Italian Renaissance style by Percy Robinson (1879-1950), it opened in 1906. Robinson also designed the old Leeds Fire Station. Hartley Shaw’s household furnishings emporium (right) is now an optician’s, but the Black Rock next door, its name commemorating the coal industry, is still a thriving pub. The café at the end of the row is also flourishing.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".

Wakefield, Market Place c1965

This scene is little changed in forty years. Market Place still contains Cresswell’s, a seafood shop (left), and a coffee bar beyond. The Shakespeare, right, is ‘as we like it’ these days, a charity shop. The Market Hall, (centre), opened on 23 April 1964; it cost £289,000 and holds 87 stalls, and replaced the old one which was in use from 29 August 1851.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".

Wakefield, Upper Kirkgate c1953

Here we are at the lower end of Kirkgate, all car-free today. Behind us is the long established Woolworth’s store, and the shop buildings on the right are also long-standing, with only cosmetic changes - like the removal of the chimneys and dormers from the central building.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".