LOCAL HISTORIAN SEARCHES FOR ARCHIVE HOME

Going Local recently had the pleasure of meeting Peter Aldred of West Ardsley who classes himself as a collector as well as a historian or in his words 'a bit of a hoarder'.  Peter has been collecting information on the history of Tingley, West Ardsley and Morley for over 50 years and his collection is totally amazing.  He has spent that last six years or more trying to find somewhere to archive his collection and the only response he has had to date is for an electronic archive which after seeing a fraction of the memorabilia he has I can understand why he is reluctant to go down this route, I found the whole experience of talking to him and looking at the different material totally fascinating, not only bringing back many memories of my childhood but giving me an insight into how life was for the older generations.  Below is a small selection of some of the things Peter showed Going Local.

When St Pauls Sunday School in Morley was pulled down a time capsule was found, there was also a plaque in the wall which was taken down, cleaned up and presented to St Pauls Church.  The original building was built in 1837 and was the first National School, the time capsule contained amongst other things an order of service dated 1908, two newspapers and a Church Magazine.  The building was pulled down in 1908 and a new one built in its place.

Peter asked me if I remembered Gomersals pop, of course I did, when I was a child the pop van came round the streets, if you gave your old bottles back you got a discount on your next purchase.  Gomersals pop started in Wrenthorpe and after about 3 years moved to Low Street, Tingley, this conversation led to me being shown his collection of pop bottles, he has bottles from David Lumb of Heybeck Lane and J Barnes & Co of West Ardsley, these two companies joined forces and became Barnes & Lumb.  There is an old Schweppes bottle which you cannot stand up, this was to keep the cork moist and dates back to the late 1800's and of course the old school milk bottles.  His collection on pop doesn't stop there he has endless photos of different delivery trucks and owners of the various pop producers in the area.

All the photographs are filed and indexed and looking through some of them had to make me smile, the photographs cover endless subjects too many for me to mention them all but a selection of them are a picture of East Ardsley Police Force dated 1915 - believe it or not there were nine policemen in the force at that time.  In the holiday time the pit ponies used to be brought out of the pit and races were held down Common Lane, where the police helicopter takes off used to be a Sanatorium and in the fields were little sheds were infected people were placed.  The offices on Pit Lane used to be the pit baths.  

We then got onto the subject of Lee Fair which has been running over 1,000 years.  Tingley got its name from the Viking Parliament which used to sit where Costcutter is now at the top of Westerton Road, this is also where Lee fair originally started as shown in the picture opposite.

Peters collection is not just photographs and articles it consists of everything.  I was shown an Inspection Report of Hill Top School dated 1885 by the Education Department - yes they even had inspections in those days, there is an article on a robbery at Boyle Hall dated 1824 and if it had been printed today I think the paper would have been sued for every penny they had.  He has the first book of East & West Ardsley Urban District Council dated 1895 and the one item I think I found the most fascinating is a Pawnbook from Sam Cleggs in Morley which starts in 1941.  Looking through the book you could see how everyone on a Monday took their best clothes, shoes, hats and bags to the pawnbrokers and then when they had been paid on a Friday they took them out again to go to Church or for Sunday best and they were returned again on the Monday.  The book must be over three inch thick, full of entries and the only thing not collected and sold was a pair of roller skates in June 1942.

I spent two hours with Peter and to be honest could write a book myself on the collection he holds, he is trying to find a home to archive his collection which will benefit everyone, I found it fascinating and I am sure everyone else will, it is part of our history and should not be lost or destroyed -can anyone help ? 

LOCAL RETIRED BUSINESSMAN RAISES FUNDS FOR WAKEFIELD HOSPICE      

Retired businessman Charlie Walker is a seventy seven year old local author.  After ten years of finding something useful to do in retirement, he learnt new computer skills by trial and error, how to type with one finger, spent thirty six hours at a time non stop banging away at his computer and has now published fourteen books on many subjects.  He has written many wonderful books, fact and poetry and has used his literary talents to raise money for charities especially the Wakefield Hospice which has benefited tremendously from this, as well as benefiting financially.

His writings on local history, told in such a humorous way, has rekindled so many memories for readers; brought many a smile and very often a chuckle too.  Charlie started selling the books at Wakefield Hospice but they are now available in print ready or downloadable format from his website www.lulu.com/cwys07307

Below is one of his poems so appropriate to the work of the Wakefield Hospice. 

GIVING

Why are we so much happier by what we receive and not at what we give ?
Is this then in the very nature of things and how we were really born to live ?

So, I asked my God, how much more of this giving do I really need to do ?
And he replied, “you keep on giving my son, until I stop giving to you”!