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Heckmondwike

Heckmondwike photos (18 available)

Old photo of Heckmondwike

Heckmondwike maps (2 available)

Old map of Heckmondwike

Heckmondwike books (15 available)

Heckmondwike memories

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You can also read memories of nearby places in West Yorkshire below.

West Yorkshire memories

LIFE IN BATLEY 1938 to 1948 royel navy to1955 to New ZEALAND 1956 royal new zealand navy to 1962to1988 new zealand prison service retired now resided in westaustralia andthat is another story w a clark BCL02059@bigpond.net.au

Batley, Market Place and Branch Road c1955

THE WAR YEARS WAR WEPONSWEEK ANDALLTHEWAR SAVINGS WEEKS VE NIGHT VJ NIGHTSWORKING AT THE BUS COMPANY IN THE SAVEL TOWN DEP OF THE YORKSHIRE WOOLEN DISTRICT TRANSPORT THE ARMY CADET CORP AT THE WARICK ROAD SCHOOL & THE DRILL SHED ON BRADFORD ROAD
A memory of Batley contributed by ARNOLD clark

rosies

does any one remember rosies cheap shop on commercial street we all used to go there for our cheap things
A memory of Batley contributed by gillian walker

Growing up in Birstall in the sixties

My memory of the market square was catching the bus in in the middle of the square to go to Batley and Dewsbury on Saturday shopping with my mother. My mother buying fresh tripe from a blue trailer parked in the square across from Bond Street. Living on The Mount (the houses have been torn down now) and going to primary school on Raikes Lane then walking up and down the big hill on Middlegate to school that was on Kirkgate.
My grandfather delivering fresh eggs.
Looking at these old pictures brings back a lot of memories of my life there, before I left England in 1967. I have never returned but hope to do so sometime in the next ...read more here
A memory of Birstall contributed by Kathy Sturhahn

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.


A memory of Birstall contributed by First name Last name

Extracts From Heckmondwike & 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".