The new Kirkgate accountancy office that amazingly once combined a hat shop and butcher's

Opening a new accountancy office (pictured below) in Kirkgate last May, Peter Marshall was amazed to discover that he is distantly related to the family who were in business at the same premises nearly 120 years ago. The photograph above, supplied by Peter, shows the early 1900s when William Jackson ran a butcher's shop at No. 70 while his daughter Mary Elizabeth opened a milliner's at No. 72. Mary, who married a Wainman, is pictured on the left on the steps with her sister-in-law Florence Shenton. The little boy is Florence's son, Harold, who was born in 1902. The Jacksons and Wainmans, whose descendants include Silsden's famous Wainman stock-car racing champions, lived above their respective shops. 

Peter Marshall's connection comes through his late father, Peter, whose cousin, Janet Whitelock, was a great granddaughter of William Jackson the butcher.
Peter and his business partner, Rebekah Krysko, are pictured above at their office at 70-72 Kirkgate. They were friends at primary school in Keighley and worked together for an Ilkley practice before setting up their own accountancy services, initially working from Peter's home and then becoming a prominent presence in Kirkgate. Their number of clients has grown far faster than Peter and Rebekah expected, and by March Marshall Krysko will be a four-person operation.

This photograph from the early 1900s shows the stretch soon after the ground floors of the houses were converted to shops.

A 1950s view. From left to right are Marion's, tobacconist and toys; chemist Herbert J. Clark; Waterhouses's ironmongery; Ernest Todd's gardening supplies; Nancy Lund's ladies' outfitters; and the Post Office, which occupied this site from 1907 to 2017 and is now at Twigg's the newsagents.

The scene in the 1960s, when No. 70-72 (which had become single premises) was the Leek and Westbourne Building Society office. Prior to Marshall Krysco moving in, the premises had housed estate agents Dale Edison and at one time before that the Britannia Building Society.

Kirkgate today from Rowlands pharmacy to the Old Post Office cafe and bar, which opened after the traditional Post Office relocated to Twigg's on the other side of Kirkgate.