Brian - did you have to mention Mosley's Fish Shop?You've started me off thinking about their steak and kidney puddings which were to die for. College Sreet was where they were situated, and by the way there is now a College Walk on that site.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) d.r.boddy@btinternet.com

~Does anybody remember the first Chinese in Keighley, just round the corner from Mosley's in the same street Beardy Westall lived in? It was called the Golden Pheasant and did a reasonable Chow Mein (not that I'd've known what a good Chow Mein was supposed to look and taste like back then). This must've been the late fifties or very early sixties. Such British eateries as they were (not including chippies for a moment, of which my favourite was always Podmore's just off West Lane) seemed all to specialise in slices of melon with powdered ginger as an exotic starter (the ginger always made you chole on the melon); and roast duck served with marmalade for mains. Anybody who complains ( and I know there are some) of the move to a more multi-cultural Britain should have their heads examined. In the late sixties I used to go miles to Bradford to the Curry Corner. Brilliant curries and all the chapaties you could eat for 3/6d.

Mosley's chippie was for the up-market connoshers. What is probably least remembered is their excellent potato crisps that they sold complete with little blue bags of what is now considered to be prohibited condiment.

The local chippies were each noted for their own peculiar - but minimally distinguishable qualities. I speak now of the Lawkholme Lane school of fodder well soaked in Hempell's dripping - pride of Bingley. At the bottom of Bradford Street - my locus natalis - there was "Gosling's (Guzzling?)Fish and Chips" - popular with the lads from Prinnies who would consume its fare sitting on the wall down Bfd Rd eating their jock with, for cutlery, black hands and white digits.
Half-way up Bfd Street was "T'Wood Hut" - now the site of a mosque - opposite the old Keighley Co-op in Brown Street. There Mr Willoughby, with a voice reminiscent of an aspiring Louis Armstrong, would announce that there were "no scones - only fish" as you walked in the door. Scones (slabs of tatie with chopped fish between, battered and fried)are a delicacy I still yearn for. Then there was Barracloughs - at the top of Marlbro St in Lawkholme Lane - noted for its copious portions of freeby "scraps" of stock-piled fried batter available on request. En route from Lawkholme (Cougar Park) they provided comfort food for the down-in- the- mouth supporters as they made their way to the town centrum for their buses home.

Ah, yes! Lawkholme/Eastwood - chip basket of down-town Keighley. (Presently mecca of the Balti-seekers)

Being a Bradford St lad (No 6 opposite t'mosque then a cleared area known as the hollow)) I also remember the local chippies.Barracloughs were good on quality but low on quantity, whereas Goslings were the opposite.The real problem was going for the family dinner and getting stuck behind the lad from Prinnies or Dean's Foundry, who not only had to get the right order but also apply the required condiments.Bradford St also had it's own Caf'. Still there but now of course serving the local cuisine.

Just shows how parochial everyone was in those days!

In our neck of the woods it was 'Cunningham's' in Victoria Road, where old man Ernest [Cunningham] was the boss, after giving a heaped shovel of chips he always used to add a few more with his pink greasy, but clean, fingers. Not bad for the princely sum of 1/1d, 9d for the fish and 4d for the chips - from memory, with or without 'scraps'.

It was never the same after his death, despite his son having been his assistant for as long as I could remember.

The only place that I have tasted fish and chips like them recently is at the Westmorland Street chippie in Skipton. Brilliant!

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

Current location (optional) www.maverickeurope.com

Well up at our end o'town we 'ad Cunninghams chippy in Victoria Rd, also one right at t'junction o' Victoria Rd and Halifax Rd run by a family called Emsley. There were a chippy by t'Oxford 'all, and another at t'bottom o' Fell Lane. Another in Ingrow Lane. We liked Emsleys. Lowest prices I can remember were 7d for fish, 4d for a 'scone' and 3d for chips.
My parents now prefer the one on South St near what was Nicholls electrical shop.

Meant to add I have bad memories of the Mai Kwai on North St. Thats where I went on my only date with Evelyn Whitaker. The food was lousy and I didnt even get a feel afterwards!

After spending my "stag night" in the boozers in Haworth, we scrounged a lift with a Kiwi, whose rugby team we had been insulting, into Keighley. We went to the Mai Kwai and sat upstairs. The meal seemed fine until the effect of the spiked drink started to take effect. I hastened down the stairs and I guess I must have left without paying - but as I left the meal behind - almost on the premises, that seemed fair does to me.
Was the Emsley chippie run by the parents of (Brian?) Emsley (1950-57 approx?)

I would like to take up with Brian his recollections of Bdfd St. If you lived at 6 opposite the "hollow" - would that be the top hollow where the bonfire was held each plot night? Were you 3 doors from the top of Pond St that led down to the railway yard - and 2 blocks from the redoubtable "Dink" Spink who lived on the corner of Bingley and Pond. If so - the caff you refer to must have been almost directly across the street. It was owned and run by a family called Holt, one of which was Colin, an old boy. The mosque was built much further down the street quite near to Marborough St Congs Sunday school. I am open to correction. I lived at 95 - opposite the "bottom 'oller" with an uninterrupted view of Prinnie's Bingley St entrances.

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

Thank God!!!!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) Evelyn894@hotamil.com

What nice to hear from Evelyn! Still in the guides???

In answer to Terry's questions regarding Bradford St.Yes we were the second block down and opposite the "hollow" where we played Cricket and Football for hours and built the bonfire(usually burnt down before the night by the "Bug-Alleyers" from behind Eastwood Tavern).The Spinks lived at the top of Bingley St.The cafe was owned by the Holts, Colin now lives round the corner from me in Riddlesden, his brother Terry died many years ago.
The first building of the Mosque was on the "top" hollow and now stretches down to the old Coop Grocery Store.
Incidentally there were a number of ex KBGS lads from Emily St.The Wright brothers,the Macdonalds and the Wilmots whose parents owned the shop on the Emily St corner of the hollow.Happy days.

Brian, I have an aerial pic of the Eastwood district dating from around 1930. If you are interested I can send it to you if you would like to receive it at your e-dress.

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

There was a chippie in a wood hut just up from Ingrow Bridge towards roadside (why was it called that?)that was quite good. The best was the Oxford Fisheries, though I suspect that opinion was coloured by having received the King's Head's hospitality each time before eating at the Oxford.
There was also a cafe in the market which served a distant approximation to a mug of tea. OK for warming your hands in the winter. Can't recall its' name.

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

Yes Terry I'd be interested in seeing the photo.You can send it to me at brian.mechen@grattan.co.uk.
Regarding the cafe in the market I remember there was one called Blackburns at the top end round the corner from the Black Horse Pub.

The Golden Pheasant was my first taste of Chinese food. I seem to remember it being periodically closed by the Public Health. Their prawn and water chestnuts was particularly virulent.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) gerizimm@aol.co.uk

Seeing that we're back to this thread, it would seem that my original reference to the Ping Hong Chinese near College St was incorrect, 2 postings having now refered to it as the Golden Pheasant.Perhaps I misheard back then and it was being referred to as the Hong King.
The first Chinese take away I remember was Charlies at the top of Low Mill Lane.Always open til late.