I recall a couple of days' grouse beating somewhere,if that qualifies. Working for the council,gardening etc, my introduction to the rhythm of the scythe and sickle,and real characters,especially a regular worker who seemed about 80.who used to arrive from Laycock,sickle in hand,a steptoe type of local;my last summer job was in a foundry,preparing the scrap in the morning,then collecting the molten stuff in those bowls wirh wooden arms,then pouring into moulds.I used to have to wear special spats. Perhaps I should have stayed there full time,arriving home grimed up from head to toe. The days of the tin bath had not long gone.

This is bring back a few memories.I remember working as a postman one Christmas,delivering in Haworth in the snow.

Like Alan, I also worked for the Council as a gardener one summer. What I remember most was cutting the grass at the abattoir - my first sight of mass killing!

Worst job was in the ice-cream factory in Silsden, putting the sticks in ice lollies just before they were frozen. Absolutely mind destroying doing that for 8.5 hours a day - made Chaplin's job in 'Modern Times' look positively exciting. As a break from the tedium, I had to fish the drowned wasps out of their liquid graves - I've never eaten a lolly since.

Christmas post was a delight - apart from anything else, it offered one of the few opportunities in the year to get close to our contemporaries at KGGS.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) jim@brantj.freeserve.co.uk

Not a holiday job but a part-time job while still at KBGS. I worked at Woolworths on Saturdays, I had the job of putting rubbish in a large baler type contraption upstairs in the stores. I also had to clean up when the place closed - some lovely girls worked behind the counters though!
I also worked for my dad's best mate Maurice Rees who manufactured bobbins for the weaving industry. When I think of the lathe type machines I worked on and the OHS issues - they'd be closed down nowadays! I could earn a good quid though, 5 nights a week.

tp

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) tpdesign@primus.com.au

Current location (optional) studiofour.com.au

Of course a lot of us had regular jobs such as paper rounds. I had one for a while for Jim Hall's parents shop in Victoria Rd, then also for a paper shop on Queens Rd , not far from Shauns house, cant remember thier name. For them on Friday evenings I used to also go round for an hour collecting money.
A woman in Caistor St always came to the door in a more or less see-through negligee, but she never asked me in.
Shaun will aslo recall I played the piano for some years for his sister's Dancing School. And I was modestly paid for organ grinding at church.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) brianmoate@hotmail.com

Current location (optional) www.whitesea.co.uk

As well as the traffic census where, as John says, I worked with him, I remember, as he will also, working for Hoyle’s of Victoria Road who were famous for their ‘Golden Dawn’ mineral-waters, as well as being the best bottlers of Guinness in the area (with each bottler having their own names and addresses printed on the Guinness label). In those days there were numerous small pop manufacturers and bottlers in Keighley and every town of a similar size, some better than others.

When the Guinness delivery arrived it was all hands to the pumps with Adrian Greenwood (the owner’s son) ‘assuming the position’ - sat on a milking-like stool in front of a stainless steel trough into which an enormous barrel of Guinness was decanted and siphoned through a series of inverted ‘U’-shaped tubes into individual bottles. A manual process with space for 12 bottles at a time! There was just sufficient time to remove one bottle and replace it with an empty before the process was repeated along the rack until it started again as long as there was Guinness flowing.

After filling, the bottles had to be ‘crown corked’ - another manual process. Problems did occur - especially when the crown cork had to be placed in position manually after every ‘corking’ which was by a foot-operated pedal forcing the top of the neck of the bottle into the cork which was crimped onto it. Quite regularly (for whatever reason) the neck shattered shooting Guinness and glass all over the place.

But the secret of Hoyle’s Guinness was the electric fire in the cellar, where the newly-bottled ‘black stuff’ had to mature for a whole month within a carefully-controlled temperature range. Think about the technology we have today; but in those days it was a thermometer, some old pieces of 'living room' carpet, an old electric fire and the dedication of yet another ‘Old Keighlian’ - Adrian Greenwood. But it worked and their reputation grew and was maintained.

I also remember one Christmas Eve, possibly 1963, when they had so many orders that they had to press their oldest wagon into service (after we had literally dug it out from the yard where it had been buried under countless crates for what must have been several years).

The driver was (better not say), but I’ve never seen a wagon so overloaded either before or since, apart from in films from the Indian sub-continent. As well as several layers of crates, containing every possible type of drink that you can imagine, it was topped-off with enough boxes of Seabrook’s crisps to keep the population of the Worth valley going for weeks.

So off we set; George Clarkson, the un-named driver, and me; first to blow the tyres up at South Street Service Station and then disappearing into the rapidly increasing gloom of South Street and Queens Road for the first ‘drop’ of the afternoon - the Ingrow Lane ‘off-licence’, where it was typical to offer the ‘dray-men’ (irrespective of their age) something to drink. So we all had a bottle. Then we struggled off up New Road Side to our next call in Cross Roads, where another drink was enjoyed by all. Our next call was the Bay Horse where a glass of ‘stout’ was offered and accepted followed by Oxenhope Social Club, which it was - this time a pint; then the Lamb and Dog and Gun. Hospitality was offered and accepted by all at every ‘drop’ even the last one of the day at a chicken farm on the road to the Guide above Cross Roads.

By the time we were rumbling down the road from Hainworth into Spring Bank the driver was aiming the wagon at the gas lamps to ‘see how many we can hit’ but swerving away at the last moment. Fortunately we all arrived safely back at the pop factory at 9.30 in time to go home and get changed for the Midnight Service at St. John’s.

Talk about an experience to remember!

Whilst William Hague was derided for his story about the amount of beer he used to consume in similar circumstances, take it from me, it was possible and I have always believed him.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) david.baldwin@maverickeurope.com

Current location (optional) www.maverickeurope.com

Thats a great story Dave. Yes Hoyles was I think in Rutland St or Apsley Street, just off Victoria Rd.
I remember George Clarkson well as he was a near neighbour, also the tragic death of his father in an explosion at an electriciy substation, and his mother Annie, and younger brother. I dont know what happenend to him , but recall he was quite ill at one time.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) brianmoate@hotmail.com

Current location (optional) www.whitesea.co.uk

I worked a few holidays at the Maypole grocery shop in Low St.My mother worked there and got me a sort of G'G'G'Granville type job.This involved shelf stacking and delivering large grocery orders which I tried to deliver by balancing the boxes on the handlebars of my bike ( usually with disaaterous results).The pay must have been a pittance as I remember spending my firsts weeks wage on Singing the Blues by Guy Mitchell from Burn's music shop on East Parade.

Unfortunately Brian, George died just after Christmas in 1975.

Annie is still living in Upper Calton Street and David is working locally as a self--employed painter and decorator.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) david.baldwin@maverickeurope.com

Current location (optional) www.maverickeurope.com

I also remember working for the Co-Op as a shelf stacker, possibly during the summer of 1962, at the 'Star Discount House' in the area between Hanover Street and Cooke Lane, in a rambling old building which backed on to Marks & Spencer's building.

One of the tricks was to 'accidentally' cut cans of shandy and packets of crisps etc. with your Stanley knife whilst cutting the boxes in which they were delivered. It was impossible to sell them so the staff 'had' to eat them.

After a few weeks they decided to teach me to operate the tills. A bit of a disaster really as one Thursday evening during a quite period I was holding some of the keys down on my till, which normally popped-up again once you let go of them and hit another key but this time they did not! Things got worse when a final cash total could not be 'pulled' at the end of the day to balance the cash in the till.

With only 2 tills in the place, and only 1 working, Friday was mayhem and customers were leaving quicker than they arrived. It took until Saturday morning to find a replacement till (from the Co-Op Restaurant).

You can guesss that I wasn't the most popular member of temporary staff and was relegated to an early version of 'industrial espionage', being sent to the main competitor (the supermarket in Alice Street) to buy a bag of sugar in order to see what price they were selling it for so that we could undercut them.

No surprise, but that was the only time that they employed me.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) david.baldwin@maverickeurope.com

Current location (optional) www.maverickeurope.com

Like Dave I spent a lot of my spare time at Hoyles. I have a lot of memories of my time pop bottling etc. One of my strongest memories is of taking the famous, "Commer", fully loaded round the Globe Pub up Park Lane one Christmas night with Kev Howley (he of the Martin Clunes type ears and ex KBGS as my
mate.

I thought I'd put the gear into number one as we negotiated the steep corner into Parkwood Street- Reverse gear was next to first, yes I put the gear lever into reverse.

We jolted backwards at great speed I stood up in the cab on the brakes. I also put the hand brake on (this was like a signal box type lever.

Kev shot out of the passenger door. All hell let loose but only two boxes of syphons fell off that back of the fully loaded wagon. The car behind me took evasive action thank God!

The second close shave was again in the Commer coming back. We were more or less empty. We had just been to Black Shore Head above Hebden Bridge. We were by the "apparatus" on Cockhill when John Carney (KBGS) decided to ratchet open the front windscreen to get some fresh air. He managed to open the glass but the tax disc flew off and away over the shimmering moor. Immediately we stopped and spent a great deal of that afternoon looking for the butterfly tax disc in the heather. We did a lot of leaping about!. People going passed thought that we were Morris Dancers.

Adrian, the owner was a character. He had many eccentric expressions. I think he's favourite was "steaming Jack Johnson" (the name of the second World War Bomb)

MAny characters worked at Hoyles. The most memorable was Lister Appleyard.

The spitten image of K.Dodd the comedian. Yes, I agree with Dave I knew every Pub Cellar etc. in keighley and district and it was easy to down many pints of beer as a dray man and still appear sober.

Also every year on August the 12th, I was out grouse beating. I knew every local moor and felt privileged in those days to be able to roam over private country land. Eventually, I felt sorry for the grouse and flagged them away from the butts.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) john@jfackroyd.fslife.co.uk

I took my first holiday job when I was 15 (the then school-leaving age) at Leighton's wood yard next to the Eastwood Tavern in Bradford Road - opposite Prinnies. I was a bit gauche - but determined not to have too much pxxx taken out of me.They tried sending me (without success) for "long stands", "glass hammers" and such like. Then, one morning one of the sons of the proprietor told me to go for an "allen key" - I told him to "Bxxxxx off". He threatened me with the sack.
The most illuminating job I had was as a cleaner (circa 1958) at the West Yorkshire Bus Station - ie cleaning the paint work, the walls, the bogs, the lot. I started in the heady atmosphere of the offices among the "top brass" but quickly worked down to the crews' restrooms and canteen - next to the old Hippodrome - and eventually the public bogs. The "ladies" was the most educating. Whilst I scrubbed, I had to lock the doors - which were furiously hammered upon by Keighley's desperate dames. The walls read like the readers page in a porno-mag. Was I glad to be out of there!!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) terrymarston@hotmail.com