Stories in a Suitcase: How Siraj Valli developed his talent for cooking after taking on running a corner shop bought for him by his dad

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

These men came to Britain because of a severe labour shortage existing during that period across the whole country.

Having now retired from mill work, Siraj currently tends to divide his time at the house on Lemon Street in Bradford where he lives, while also regularly visiting his parental home on Scout Hill in Dewsbury, situated on the boundary between Ravensthorpe and Dewsbury Moor.

​As someone who belongs to a dwindling generation, "Haji Siraj" agreed to be interviewed for the Kirklees Faith Network's "Ravensthorpe Stories In A Suitcase Project".

Here, Siraj talks in this third final interview about what life was like for him growing up as a teenager in the Sixties.

​​Speaking to the Reporter Series, he explained: "I arrived from the Gujarat state of India into Dewsbury with my older brother Ismail (Ishmael) Valli on a cold snowy evening in December 1962 at the age of only 12.

"We came to live with our father in the neighbourhood of Scout Hill.

"My father was on permanent 'morning shifts'. So, I was alone in the house with my brother.

"There were lots of jobs available in that actual post-war era. But of course, anyone who wanted to be in paid employment had to wait until their 15th birthday to start work in those days.

"I was obviously too young to be employed in the mills. I had no choice except to stay at home.

"I eventually began working four years later at the same mill as my father after leaving Victoria High School in 1967.

​"My father, Adam Valli Ugradar, was already employed at Liversedge's Blackwood and Kilmarnock mill. He had been working there ever since arriving from India in July 1958.

"This huge carpet manufacturing mill was known to the area's local white-English speaking residents as 'The B&K’.

"One of the mill's buildings also operated under the name of 'Cook & Sons'. But it was simply 'The Cook Mill' for the sub-continent's migrant workers.

"The whole complex was run from three different sites - all in very close proximity to each other. The Liversedge mill's five storey structure towered itself above all the other buildings in that vicinity.

"My generation did not have to fill in any lengthy applications. I simply turned up one day at this big Liversedge workplace and was given a simple sheet of A4 paper asking for my name, home address, date of birth, national insurance number, along with a few other personal details.

I then got a start date to join the 'B&K workforce - within four days!

"My father and I naturally went to work together by bus.

"But I can also remember walking with him all the way to Liversedge from our home on Scout Hill whenever the buses were grounded due to heavy snow.

"We would have to 'cut across' Dewsbury Moor and ‘head down' Heckmondwike Road towards Liversedge whilst side stepping many of the hidden hazards like slippery black ice.

"Such was the discipline my father's generation was willing to show in those tough years just to 'clock in' on time at the mill.

"I however left the 'B&K Mill' in 1969 after working there for two years, and moved to Warmels and Walkers on Smithies Lane in Heckmondwike - where the management, impressed by my hardworking, friendly character, appointed me a foreman within a few months.

"But circumstances forced me to permanently leave mill work after my left arm got stuck in one of the machines at Warmels and Walkers.

"The industrial injury paralysed my entire arm and I was hospitalised for nearly three weeks.

"The doctors were even talking about amputating my arm. But luckily the situation did not get to that drastic stage because it was instead decided by a specialist that I should attended regular clinic-based physiotherapy appointments, which I did between the years 1970 to 1973.

"I cannot lift anything heavy using that left arm to this day.

"My father remained at the B&K Mill throughout his entire working life. Most of the men his age never changed workplaces and stayed in one same mill until their retirement.

"But he purchased a corner shop for me to look after in Bradford after my accident. The shop sold groceries and Halal meat.

"I had also become rather well known from the mid-1970s onwards for my cooking!

"Soon, orders were being placed with me through the shop, to cook for Mosque functions, and even large wedding gatherings!

"It was not long afterwards when I decided to move out of the shop to just focus on my catering work. The skills which I had learned by watching my father in our small kitchen at Scout Hill had proven very useful.

"Looking back, I have now realised my future was indeed being planned at a young age in that kitchen. I still tend to cook for all sorts of events."