Further to post before last, I completley forgot to mention Asa when I visited Dad last night !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Better than that, after a long search, I have put the article from the "Dalesman" August 1973 into the Misc . section of Photos. I can remember him as a student teacher at Highfield School in the late 30's when he taught the class my brother Peter was in .

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Tasmania

Good article, Mike. Well worth reading. David

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945-50

Current location (optional) Keighley

Must be Watson Barnes - a fine figure of a man and voice - who was a chorister in the Holy Trinity (Lawkholme) C of E choir. He also sang and helped produce the music for some of my dad's productions for the scout/guides in that area.

Until the 1944 Butler Education Act was implemented in Keighley, (when the "excepted district" status for Keighley was established) , Eastwood and Parkwood elementary schools were each separate "all through" junior and secondary schools". Each district had Infant schools in Marlborough and Parkwood Streets respectively.

The Butler Act reorganisation in Keighley Borough left the 2 infant schools unchanged but Parkwood became the Junior School for the kids of both districts and Eastwood housed the new Secondary Modern. This meant that Doug, the Hockeys and me et al were all required to attend Parkwood from September 1950 prior to eventual onward transmission to the new secondary modern or grammar schools.

This had the effect of seemingly raising the school leaving age 2wice for young'uns like me in 1949.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

I picked up a book today 'The Secret War". Foreword by Robert Harris. This interested me as Robert was at school with my eldest son in Leicestershire. So I read the foreword and the second paragraph I quote ---
"I met my first pair of Bletchley Park veterans by accident over dinner with a friend's parents in 1980, when I was 23. Typically, they were the daughter of an earl and a grammar school boy from Keighley, who had gone on to become a famous historian. by the end of the war, he had helped compile a set of records of the Luftwaffe, so voluminous they had to be housed in an aircraft hangar.and which eventually proved to be more detailed than those held by Goering's Air ministry in Berlin. She had operated a type X decryption machine - a simple clerical job- but the nature of her work meant that , at nineteen, she held in her head the greatest British secret of the war ; a fact of which she was acutely concious , she said , every time she ventured out in public "

Fifteen years later Robert wrote "Enigma"

Wonder if the lady in question is Asa's wife .

Needless to say I bought the book

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Tasmania

I was too quick to jump to the conclusion that the Earls daughter was his wife. In an article about Asa and his work at Bletchley he. States that he did not tell his wife about his work there until 1970 Sorry to have misled you .

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43/46

Current location (optional) Tasmania

I can support the statement that Sargeson's "selling out" shop was at the bottom of Bradford Street, facing onto Bfd Rd. Adjoining it at the junction of Bfd Rd and Bingley Street was a newsagents cum sweet shop.

Directly opposite on Bfd Rd on the Bug Alley side was another general shop selling bread; cigs; bakery and bits. Known as "Alice's" or "Ivy's", it was run by the Redman family - whose two sons (both in the family business as painters and decorators) were Billy and Ernie. Ernie was a very good rugby league player (stand-off) for the Lawkholme "steam pigs".

Such shops as there were at the bottom of Back Emily, Emily and Marlborough Streets were a fish and chippy (signed as "Gosling Fish and Chips"!!); a pet shop;and Cookson's undertakers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Nirvana

Mt Sargeson was very poor sighted but still fronted his shop counter. It was alocal'dare' to try and pass foreign coins as he used to identify by touch any coins he received. His poor eyesight meant he could not identify you if you did deceive him. I am not proud of this. Across Bradford Road and next door to Redmans which incidentally I was instrumental in selling after Ivy Redman died, was a family, I cant remember their surname, who sold firewood. They had a yard with a mechanical chopper and a clamp to wire the firewood together. I used to work in there during some of the school holidays but it was more like playing really. I thought the family poor but one of the sons actually later bought The Beeches and converted it into the hotel/ bar/ restaurant it has become, so they must have made a packet of money out of firewood.

Saw Dad again this evening. Now he says the Briggs shop was mainly fruit and vegetables, and was probably at Emily St junction with Bradford Rd, earlier he said Marlborough St.. We are talking about 1929-31 period here. Mr Briggs had a horse and cart and used this for selling door to door. Part of the shop window however, was given to philately, which explains Asa's interest , and as I have said earlier, he swapped them with Dad at school.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Arthur. The name you are looking for relating to the 'firewood family', is Leighton, and I think the one who bought 'The Beeches' was Tommy Leighton.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945-50

Current location (optional) Keighley

Lord Asa is 91 today

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

My dad's 92 today and we're taking his 1985 Holden Gemini in for a service - 300,000Km. They match each other!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1947-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ