Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire

70s Triangle

Growing up in Triangle in the 70s, I was the middle child of three children. My dad was Ian Whippey and my grandparents were Arthur and Lillian Whippey. We lived at 18 Rochdale Road, opposite the Triangle Inn, then run by the Collett family.

I remember the harsh winters with snow drifts and also the hot summer afternoons. Sunday afternoons was a treat as Grandad took my brother Mark and I over to the pub for coca cola and crisps all round!!!

Our Uncle Colin was a great cricketer so we would often watch him play at the cricket club or play in the woods at the back of the club.  Mark would go off with his friend chan and play at the river. I also remember at the time that John Madden, Tracie Whippey and Colin Gledhill were also cricketers too.

Triangle School was a stone's throw from our house and Mrs Reynolds was my teacher back then, and Phillippa Jack was my best friend.

I remember the chippy and the Sunday walks up to Millbank (even in the winter).

Back then it was a very tight knit community. It feels a shame that over the years, people have overtaken from as far afield as London. Still, it will always remain my favourite place.

Triangle in the 50s

My name is Monica Sekulka, I lived at Oaken Royd, Triangle, on the Norland side of the valley. Our house was one of 8, back to back - which the local council decided to demolish in their haste for modernity sometime in the 70s. We moved to Dodge Royd Farm, just a couple of hundred yards from Oaken Royd in the 60s. I remember walking to Triangle primary school over the old bridge by Rough Hey Woods and I have a memory very early in the 50s of steam trains passing through - all I could see was the smoke from the engines - a ghostly mist through the trees. There used to be a railroad station at Triangle, which once the railway ceased became the local boyscouts meeting place - it was finally destroyed by arson - pity. I remember the old co-op, that's where we did our shopping, I even remember the police station - with its blue light. I remember the old pub - my dad, Bruno Sekulka was a member of the local rabbit club, and shows were held upstairs in the pub - people showing their rabbits, pigeons and hens. I remember the old mill which had a hostel for its young women workers - and I remember the men waiting outside the hostel trying to get dates with the hostel girls. The guys tried to look like Elvis with their hairstyles. I remember the cricket club - I'd sit in the woods overlooking the ground and watch the matches on warm days. I remember the demolition of the old houses besides the co-op - yes they were old - but sometimes our history is destroyed by those rushing towards modernity.

Place where I was born

I know this part of Sowerby so well as I was born in one of the cottages in the centre left of the photo. Grandma lived in the end house and my parents in the middle one. On recent visits the place has altered somewhat and is spoilt by too many cars parked around the greens, but such is progress.

Sowerby the place I was born

This picture evokes happy memories of the village where I was born and lived for the first twenty two years of my life.  I have visited it often over the past forty years whenever I was in Yorkshire, and I still find it a lovely place to be.  Maybe it has become just a little too pristine, and unfortunately not improved by the many cars which line its avenue.