Gino and Nancy's headline anniversary at Cut Italia

Immensely popular hairdressing couple Gino and Nancy Familio have celebrated 30 years as owners of Cut Italia, at No. 88 Kirkgate. They met through hairdressing and next year will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Gino (Luigi) was born into a hairdressing family in Naples and came to England in 1969. He worked at salons in Bradford and Leeds, going on to manage the upmarket Carlo and Jeffrey hairdresser's in Leeds, where clients included Leeds United footballers. A hairdresser for more than 50 years, Gino won prestigious national competitions in the 1970s. After 30 years at Cut Italia in Silsden, he and Nancy, who was an apprentice at Rogue's in Bradford when she met Gino, regard all their clients not as customers but as friends. Their son Alex ran Cut Italia between 2009 and 2015 but has since moved to the United States where his wife comes from. 

Planning chiefs turn down scheme for road to serve new school and hundreds of homes

The proposal to build a countryside-destroying road to serve Silsden's proposed new school at Hawber Cote Lane and thus enable up to 1,000 homes in two phases to be built on farmland has been turned down by Bradford council planning chiefs.

The momentous decision was announced on April 2nd 2019, nearly a year after the road plan was submitted, uniting Silsdeners to protect fields, hedgerows, trees and dry-stone walls in an area immensely popular with walkers of all ages. The campaign generated more than 400 objections to the plans. 

The manner and suddenness of the decision took campaigners by surprise. They had been awaiting a date for a council planning meeting at which the application would be discussed. But it has been revealed (April 2nd) that the scheme for an enabling road has been refused by the 'area planning manager or group planner' rather than the planning committee. Above: MP John Grogan joined protesters at a gathering in Brown Bank Lane in January.

In September many people supported a protest walk on public paths that cross the route of the proposed enabling road. The road would have started in Bolton Road, on the up stretch near Tannery Corner. From there it would have headed through the countryside to Hawber Cote Lane where the proposed new school is to be built. The planners say the application (by the Silsden Development Company) does not provide sufficient information and in particular is not supported by a transport assessment.

The planners also say the proposed development would be incremental and prejudice the comprehensive development of safeguarded land in the wider area. The campaign was spearheaded by among others (left to right) Sue Grimley, Jim Grimley, Caroline Whitaker, Janet Russell and Cathy Liddle. 

View from Hawber Lane looking towards fields where the road would have headed towards the proposed new school, due to be built in the fields to the left of the tree-obscured barn.

The fields towards Swartha ultimately could have become a substantial housing estate. The applicant has the right to appeal against the planners' verdict. 

School's 1950s capital outing to the Ideal Home Exhibition

Silsden Secondary Modern School students are pictured at Steeton and Silsden railway station in the mid 1950s for an outing to the Ideal Home Exhibition at London's Olympia. The photograph was sent to me by Silsdener Len Green and belongs to Sylvia Matthews (nee Whittingham), who is fifth from left in the front row. The teacher at the back on the right is Mrs Barbara Waugh. The Ideal Home Exhibition was founded in 1908 by the Daily Mail to stimulate debate about better housing conditions. By the 1950s the exhibition had become an iconic symbol of mass consumption.


Also from Len Green is this photo of Silsden Secondary School's Canoe Club, about 1956/57.

Silsden pupils pictured in the early 1950s when the Secondary Modern School included juniors.

Panto time at Silsden Methodist Church in the 1950s. Another photo kindly provided by Len Green, who is sitting on the left in the front row.

The old Silsden Secondary Modern School, which ceased in 1967, since when South Craven School at Cross Hills has been the upper school for Silsden. Silsden's secondary school became Hothfield Junior School, fed by Aire View Infants School. The two schools have now merged as a primary prior to moving to new purpose-built premises at Hawber Cote.

Hothfield today in School Street, viewed from the opposite end  of the buildings.

The official designation is Silsden Primary School, Hothfield site.

A puzzling time for Elsie and Elsie

More than 60 local volunteers, ranging in age from 6 to 86, have been working for months on puzzles for Silsden's first Jigsaw Festival, which will take place at the Town Hall on April 13th. They have completed more than 300 jigsaw puzzles, which will be exhibited and offered for sale at the festival. Pictured above is former Silsden weaver Elsie Pickering, 82, who has put together 40 jigsaw puzzles for the event.

Above: among the youngest volunteers is Silsden Primary School pupil Elsie Taylor, 6, who has completed seven puzzles for the festival, which will include competitions, all-day café, raffle and tombola. Proceeds will go to the Friends of Silsden Town Hall, who run the premises as a community asset. Festival admission will be £1. The event is being organised by Silsden resident Wendy Neville. 

From Nadine's to nail bar: another new look in Kirkgate

The C & K Nail Bar opened at No. 50 Kirkgate last summer, the latest change in this stretch of properties, which has been a retail parade since the late 1800s.

The nail bar is managed by Vy Hoang and Tu Anh, who came to West Yorkshire from Vietnam six years ago.

No. 50 was previously Nadine's, run by Nadine Errington, pictured above, who followed Colin Russell's Dual Discounts in 1995 and traded there for more than 20 years.

I took this photograph for my blog of September 25th 2013 when I featured Nadine's and Picturesque at No. 50A. Marcus Bernard's picture-framing business and gallery is a mainstay not just of this stretch but of Silsden's wider trading sector, having opened Picturesque in 1992. The Essence bar and bistro was previously Bonaparte's, a popular dining venue during Neil Albone's ownership. The property has now been converted into living accommodation.

The row of shops from Nos. 44 to 54 has seen many fascinating changes over the years. This photograph was a postcard that carried a 1915 date stamp.

Fast-growing chain chooses Kirkgate for third opening

A pharmacy for many years, latterly Rowlands, No. 49 Kirkgate is now The Yorkshire Vaper, the third shop in a rapidly growing chain started three years ago in Pudsey by former quantity surveyor Dale Wilkinson. Selling e-cigarettes, e-liquids and accessories, the Pudsey opening was followed by Horsforth last year. Bridlington is next (April) and by the end of the year there are due to be 10 Yorshire Vaper shops.

Pictured above at the Silsden branch are the company's retail manager, Sophie Phillips (right), and retail assistant Rebecca Gledhill. Unhappy with products on offer, Dale decided to create his own flavours. The Yorkshire Vaper manufactures own-brand e-liquids at premises in Bradford. There are some 100 juices of all kinds. One of the best sellers is a range based on fizzy drinks.

All three shops display photos of Dale's grandparents, Wilfred and Mary Hutchinson. The company's Mary's Kitchen range features flavours based on desserts Dale's grandma made when he was a child, such as jam pasty, Bavarian slice, raspberry pudding, blackberry pie and lemon Madeira cake.

First-class delivery of a new era in Kirkgate

The distinctive Old Post Office café and bar marks the start of a new era for No. 64 Kirkgate, which was Silsden's post office for 110 years, from 1907 to 2017, when the business moved to Twigg's newsagents.
Pictured above are the Old Post Office owners Helen Rampling and her partner Gavin Hawker. Helen previously ran Bilaluci's café bar, now closed, across the road. The transformation of No. 64 has been helped by a £36,330 grant from a European Union investment in rural businesses and community assets. 

Helen and Gavin have salvaged the front of the former post office counter and incorporated it into the bar at the new café, which was packed for the sunlit opening weekend on February 23rd and 24th.The café has a small seating area outside overlooking the beck.The upstairs floors are being converted into two one-bedroom flats.