Shepley memories
Here are memories of Shepley and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Shepley or a Shepley photo.
Sheply Village Center
This photo could have been taken from my bedroom window. I lived in Shepley from 1961 to 1983. On the left is The Black Bull pub, on the right is the Conservative club, which became the youth club.
Chip Shop
The building to the right of centre of this photo was Dyson's Fish & Chip Shop in the 1960s and 1970s. The caption says Main Road, but this road the A629 had several names. one was Penistone Road, but at this point it was known as Abbey Road South, before becoming Lane Head Road.
Central Stores
The large 3-storey building to the right of centre, was the village grocery store at 91 Lane Head Road. My father purchased it in 1961 from Frank Armitage. He sold it in 1984 when he retired. At the rear were stables, groceries used to be delivered by horse drawn cart, but my father used a Ford Thames van, until in 1966 when he got a Ford Cortina estate car from H. W. Gill. To the right of our shop was Copleys bakery.
Shepley
Hi, I am living in Ireland now. I spent many a good night in the Farmer's Boy pub, I was called 'Irish' by name, some day I hope to holiday in your lovely village.
The Memories Are Endless.
Good morning from Waterloo, Canada. I was absolutely thrilled with your site and stumbled on it quite by chance. I was born in 1943 at my grandparents house at Yew Tree Terrace just off Station Rd. I grew up in Shepley, attended school there as well as being in St. Paul's Church choir. I sat on the wall at the bridge opposite the Black Bull as a teenager visiting with friends and when we weren't at the Church Youth Club we walked miles up the Marsh across to the Sovereign and back down past Cliff House to Station Rd and home which was then on Jos Way. Walking took us miles through Thunder Bridge to Stocks Moor and back around to Stones Wood the memories are endless. I married and had two sons and lived in the Old Fold off Station Road, a historical protected property. The village isn't the same now with all the new homes and the changes that have taken place over the years but Shepley Village... Read more
Memories of West Yorkshire
War Years
I was born in 1941 and as a child, lived at Park Head Row, Birdsedge. There was little traffic then and we used to play hopscotch on the main road. Around the age of three, whilst swinging on our garden gate, I vividly remember the unusual sight of a convoy of khaki army trucks entering the village. I watched in awe as they turned right at the Crown pub and headed up Park Head Row. As they passed our house, one of the soldiers smiled and shouted to me in an American drawl, "Ya want some gum chum," as he tossed a small packet towards me. This was the first time I had ever seen long strips of Spearmint gum. My father took us walking on Sundays all the way up Park Head to the crossroads where we turned left and carried on past Rusby Wood which was known locally as the 'bilberry wood' but after those army trucks arrived, we never went that way for some time. Later,... Read more
Baby Jane
I remember severe winters growing up in Birdsedge, they were beautiful and exciting but harsh. My little sister was born in Jauary 1963. My parents were the caretakers of the primary school in the village. I remember my dad in his coat and scarf coming to get me out of the infant class to take me home, I looked up at him and asked where we were going and he told me I had a baby sister and I could choose her name - the choice was between Jane and Sally, I chose Jane. It was a freezing day but I felt warm inside because I had a new sister.
Memories of my Past
This scene hasn't changed very much. My grandfather Archibald Barnaby Eliott live in the Co-op house which was in Low Town, 'Treacle Ole' as it was called. He used to drive a donkey-cart, delivering coal I think, round the village. My great grandma lived in a one up one down across from what used to be the old swimming baths in Low Town, she had 9 children so I think it would have been cramped. There used to be a photo in the George Hotel of my grandfather. My father George Elliott used to keep the Smiths Arms and I would be very interested to find any history on the building. When I got married my in-laws used to keep the sweet shop next door to what used to be the old barbers by the road crossing.
North Road And The Treacle Hole.
I was at the local junior school, the headmaster of which was Mr Ronald Pearson,when this photo was taken.He lived just beyond and to the right of the area of the photo,in Hallas Road.My uncle Jim Wroe was at one time,Manager of Kirkburton Baths mentioned in another posting and situated close by in the "Treacle Hole,"the lowtown part of the village locally having gained its name from a spillage of barrels of treacle from a horse drawn cart early in the twentieth century.
The small wooden building on the left , now a newsagents did I think serve the same purpose in 1950.The next shop but one was and is still a Co-op butchers ,which,in 1960 was broken into late at night by four youths who,risking death,climbed up a drainpipe onto the roof at the back and got in by opening a skylight and climbing down a rope.Despite finding a drawer full of money all they stole... Read more
The Post Office And The Barber's Shop.
The white coated figure to the right is the barber Willie Jenks,standing outside his shop.He slicked back his hair with Brylcream and specialised in short back and sides.A visit could incur moments of pain from his close cutting mechanical clippers.
A little further away on the right is the original village Post Office, in use from the nineteenth century until relatively recently.In the 1950's the Postmaster was Mr Vincent Walker who stood stiffly upright behind his counter and with distinguished grey hair and a carefully modulated slow gravelly voice was a figure of some gravitas who exuded an aura of his importance in village life.
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