Nostalgia: Life in the Heavy Woollen District with no heating, carpet or TV

He now tends to divide his retirement between the residential address on School Grove where he lives in Dewsbury Moor, and at his son’s house on Kaye Street in Heckmondwike.

Mr Yasin was part of a large group of Indian and Pakistani nationals who were encouraged to come and work in England’s mills throughout the post-war decades of the 1960s and 1970s.

These migrants came due to a severe labour shortage existing at that time across the whole country.

​As someone who now makes up a dwindling generation, Mr Yasin has agreed to be interviewed by the Kirklees Faith Network’s “Heckmondwike Stories In A Suitcase” project.

​In this week’s edition, he talks about the housing and social conditions faced by his generation during the 1960s.

​Speaking to the Reporter Series, Mr Yasin said: “I came to England at the age of 16 on board a British Airways flight from Pakistan in January 1966.

“All I had in my hands was one small suitcase, and only £4 in my pocket!

​“My father who was already working in Dewsbury, had sponsored my visa application so I could come over and live with him at a small house in Batley.

​“It was snowing heavily on the day I got off the aeroplane at Heathrow Airport.

“A friend of my father’s came to collect me from the airport in an old Morris Minor.

“He then drove the car back north through some treacherous weather conditions.

“The driver eventually managed to reach a terraced cul-de-sac in Batley after a long 200 mile seven-hour journey!

​“Upon arriving at the Batley cul-de-sac, I got out of the car to see a small brick house in front of me with a wooden door and three windows.

“Two of the windows were located in what I found out a short while later to be upper floor sleeping areas known as ‘bedrooms’.

“Village houses in Pakistan did not have bedrooms in that era. So, the idea of an upper floor ‘bedroom’ was a new concept for me!

​“The bricks seemed rather worn out. Yet, despite its condition, this house was to be my ‘new’ home for the next several years.

“My father opened the door to welcome me with a loving smile. I was then taken into a living room which he had warmed up with some coal, lit in a fireplace.

​“I lived with my father for the next several years in that small ‘back-to-back’ terraced house.

​“There was no insulation, or central heating in the property, and neither did we have any electrical heaters to keep us warm.

“Only a gas cooker was switched on in the small kitchen whenever our supper of curry and chapattis had to be prepared.

“Otherwise, the house was always very cold - unless a shovel of coal was brought up from the cellar and put in the fireplace.

​“The cold atmosphere inside was much harsher during those days because the rooms in our home were not even carpeted. Wooden floorboards were visible everywhere.

“One of the first things I noticed immediately after arriving from abroad was how very little furniture filled up our homes during those days.

“I suppose people from that post-war generation were not consumer obsessed like most sections of society are in today’s materialistic age.

“In fact, we only bought what was seen as necessary such as items of furniture like a wooden table, and some chairs or a settee to place in the living room, or a small fridge for the kitchen, or maybe a wardrobe for the bedroom where our clothes could be kept.

​“Many Pakistani migrants did not even have television sets at that time.

“My father later did buy a television, but it was a second-hand black and white one - and without a remote control!

​“The television however was not everything.

“Sitting together with friends and relatives in the same small living room and enjoying a cup of tea was seen as something far more important in those days.

“I was obviously born in a Pakistani Sufi-Muslim family.

“My religion has always been very important to me.

“My opinions were no different when I came from Pakistan as a young man to settle and work in the local area.

“The early Indian and Pakistani migrants who first came to the Heavy Woollen District had strong Muslim values.

“They were also very disciplined and had a deep respect for authority and the rule of law.

“Such thinking was especially important to those Pakistani men like my father who had served in the armed forces as British-Indian Army soldiers.

​“I was really eager to learn how to read the Muslim holy book - the Koran - with proper Arabic Tajwid pronunciation.

“Yet, no Mosques or Maddrassahs existed in the local area to help young men like me.

“There was a small ‘Sufi house-Mosque’ in the Sixties at a place called Barber Street on the outskirts of Dewsbury town centre.

“But this place was only used for worship. So, I had to ‘miss out’ on a Maddrassah education during my teenage years.

​“Besides a lack of Mosques, my generation also grew up without enjoying facilities like exercise gyms.

“The cold weather did not even allow us to go outside for a walk.

“Most of the streets were always quiet and empty anyway because everyone would be inside. Very few individuals had cars. So, the streets used to look deserted.

“One thing interesting about that period was the pavements were so clean. you barely saw any litter on the pavement or road.

“But there were plenty big puddles of rainwater! I lived through a very simple modest time.

​“But then living a simple life was the culture for us migrant workers.

“At the time everyone seemed convinced we would only stay in the country for a few years before the Home Office was to ask us to leave. So, it made sense not to be too extravagant.

“Otherwise, spending money in the shops could be a big temptation because the rate of inflation was so low.

“I began doing the shopping for my father on Saturday mornings if there was no overtime work booked in.

“As a result of the Saturday shopping, I can remember clearly the value something like a fifty pence coin had in those decades.

“I always came home from Dewsbury market holding three full carrier bags filled with good quality fresh fruit and vegetables!

“Yet, there still used to be enough change left behind out of the fifty pence to buy some other essential foodstuffs like fresh bread, butter, sugar, tea, biscuits, and cereals!

“Dewsbury Market was the biggest and one of the most attractive in our district.

“There were of course other markets as well like the ones in Heckmondwike and in Batley. But the large market in Dewsbury was the most popular for miles around in our region.

​“In fact, the whole of Dewsbury town centre was such a beautiful place during those days.

“The town had everything such as grocery shops, butchers, bakers, florists, tailors, cobblers, shoe shops, clothing stores like Marks and Spencer, newsagents and toy shops selling die-cast models of cars and aeroplanes, not to forget cafes.

“The town’s shops were some of the best in the area. The owners always seemed to take pride in their elegant window displays.

“I now tend to feel saddened and depressed to see so many of these buildings lying empty and boarded up whenever I am in Dewsbury walking through the town centre. Taking a walk up the town’s Daisy Hill vicinity is exceptionally distressing.

​“What has happened to Dewsbury shows not all economic change can be good.

“Sometimes, such change can also cause massive damage to what at one point in our history were beautiful thriving market towns filled with pedestrians.

“We can clearly learn a lot of lessons on the good aspects of today’s life by looking at our nostalgic past.

​“The only thing I can do these days is to sit on a park bench and to think about everything good which existed in that period.”