Nostalgia: From the archives

In this week 30 years ago:

Efforts to save post offices were given support during a council meeting. Howden Clough residents handed over a petition to save their post office and councillors met post office representatives to discuss the future of the services in Heckmondwike, Dewsbury and Cleckheaton. Labour councillor John Dick said: “Closing the office would cause serious hardship to members of the community, in particular, the elderly, disabled and people with young families.”

A Heckmondwike woman stayed up late to watch her husband compete for the country in the Los Angeles Olympics. Former Heckmondwike Grammar pupil Pamela Hughes watched her husband, Norman, take Britain’s hockey team to Bronze glory.

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The state of Mirfield Parish Church’s yard was criticised by a woman visiting her grandmother’s grave. She had just moved to the area and said she had to plough for 10 minutes through weeds and over graves to reach her grandmother’s grave. Canon Jim Mellors, from the church, acknowledged the state of the grounds and said not enough help was given by the council to fund the maintenance required.

In this week 50 years ago:

Heckmondwike Council sought compulsory purchase orders to get its Lobley Street Clearance and Redevelopment Scheme started. The council decided to ask the housing minister to confirm its plan to purchase 50 properties in the area, which included houses and premises in Lobley Street itself, as well as a dozen dwellings in High Street and half a dozen in Red Chapel Street.

Batley Employment Committee was told that the heavy woollen trade was considered to be a “Cinderella industry”. Clifford Firth, the managing director of a local firm, told the group it was now regarded as working in coal mines had been years before. The committee discussed ways to attract and keep young people in heavy woollen jobs.

A housewife’s complaints about the opening hours of shops in Mirfield prompted a special meeting of the Chamber of Trade. The woman, who had recently moved to Mirfield, wrote to the Reporter to say she had to visit neighbouring areas as the town’s shops had different opening hours, too many half days and varying lunch hours. She said: “I wish to deplore, as a housewife, the ridiculously haphazard shopping hours maintained by traders in Mirfield.”

In this week 75 years ago:

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The prospective National Liberal candidate for the Spen Valley made his first official visit to Birstall. William E Woolley addressed meetings at the Liberal and Conservative clubs. He said the National Government had saved the country and warned against the alternative of socialism, which he feared would appeal to the Spen people. He said: “It is because I honestly believe the Socialist programme would spell ruin that I am opposing socialism in the interests of the people of this country.”

A Mirfield woman was jailed for six months with hard labour after she pleaded guilty to obtaining £15 through false pretences. She borrowed money from a shopkeeper after claiming she was expecting a large sum. She was living apart from her husband and said she needed money to pay for her lodgings. She said her husband had the key to a drawer containing £40. She presented a note of hand to the shopkeeper with a guarantee from a Mirfield bank, but when the shopkeeper presented the note the bank said it had no knowledge of the defendant.

Cleckheaton won the Heavy Woollen District Challenge Cup for the first time in its history by defeating Scholes. The weather was fine at the Hartshead Moor ground, where Scholes made its first appearance.