Sunday 6 October 2013

Aire View Stores is one of only a handful of local establishments still in the same line of business, on the same premises, as they were more than 100 years ago. A true “corner shop”, at the junction of Aire View and Prince Street, the grocery opened in 1900 and for years was run by Arthur and Susan Mosley, and then by their son Norman, who was born in 1900. Norman continued as proprietor until the 1960s or even the early 1970s. Subsequent owners included Bruntons, Whitemans, Eric and Mary Milner (who left to run the Craven Heifer at Addingham) and Bob and Eileen Parkinson, who ran the grocery until 2000 when the present owners, Mr Gurdial Singh and his wife, Mrs Sukhminder Kaur, bought the business. They run it with their son Mohan Singh and Mohan’s wife, Arvindec Kaur. The family are pictured above. Mr Singh, who has considerably extended and modernised the store, was born in Malaysia but educated in Punjab in India. He came to England aged 17 in 1962 and for 29 years was a wool-comber in leading mills in the Bradford district. He and his wife, who were married in 1968, ran grocery businesses in Bradford, Doncaster and Newcastle before coming to Silsden. They have a married daughter in San Francisco. Mr Singh is a trustee of the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Bradford. Among his enjoyments are Yorkshire ales and Yorkshire fish and chips.