Above: Wreaths of poppies were laid by local organisations and individuals at Silsden's Remembrance Day service at the war memorial on November 10, 2013. There was a large gathering in bright sunshine. The Town Band accompanied the hymns.

Above: Douglas Boulton, president of Silsden Royal British Legion, lays the Legion's wreath.

Above: Ex-servicemen and Legion members wait to lay wreaths.

Above: The Rev David Griffiths, of St James' Parish Church, conducted the service, assisted by Father Michael McLaughlin, of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church.

Above: A section of the public at the service. Attendance seems to increase each year. 

Above (left to right): Silsden Royal British Legion standard-bearer David Rishworth, chairman Jean Bower, town mayor Chris Atkinson and Legion president Douglas Boulton.

Above: Scouts and cubs were among the many young people taking part. A wreath was also laid on behalf of Silsden Youth Council.

Above: The Menin Gate at Ypres, where the names of 54,389 officers and men who fell in Flanders Fields and who have no known grave are inscribed. The names include that of Private Thomas Henry Fort, of Raikes Head Farm, Silsden, whose letter from the trenches to his family a year before his death in 1917 was read out at the service. 

Above: Bethan Ravenscroft is pictured with a couple of guys dressed for a special occasion. Silsden's bonfire-night firework display at The Green, in Bradley Road, on November 2 was preceded by a best-guy competition at the Red Lion pub where manager Danielle Broadley judged bomb-holding Guy Fawkes (on the right of the picture) the winner. The Co-op's fund-raising gentleman on the left supported the competition, as did Bethan. The winner was made by the Spencer Avenue Action Group. The fireworks and bonfire, organised by the Gala Committee, went ahead despite the adversity of frequent downpours. 

Another of Silsden's mainstay businesses is at No. 39 Kirkgate, which has been a newsagent's for at least 100 years, from the time of James Edward Streets. The present owner, Martin Twigg, is pictured above with his mother, Rita. Martin bought the business from Martin Lampkin in 1994, the Lampkins having followed John and Shirley Twigg, who were proprietors from 1963 until 1988. Martin, who is chairman and treasurer of Silsden Golf Club, is John Twigg's nephew. Apart from the Lampkin years, Rita Twigg has helped in the shop since 1963.

Signs of the times: the present-day frontage of Twigg's (above) is restrained compared with the 1970s stridency of tobacco and newspaper advertising (below).   

John and Shirley Twigg, who came to Silsden from Keighley, acquired the business from the Fuguill family, which had kept the Streets name during their proprietorship.

Above: This Streets advertisement was published in the Urban District Council's 1954 guide to Silsden.

Above: The shops from No. 31 (the bakery, not in picture) to No. 39, between Aire View and New Road, are an attractively colourful Kirkgate asset. The same aspect but with different retailers in the 1970s is pictured below. 

Above: 1970s scene. The launderette on the left, which is now The Rice Bowl Cantonese take-away, was the fondly-remembered Milk Bar in the 1940s and 50s. The Silsden Liberal Association rooms had several different uses before becoming the Co-op funeral-care office of today. For several years No. 37, now the Beehive hair and beauty salon, was Gibson's greengrocery and then Myers greengrocery. The Gibson name was uncovered in recent repair work on the title board of the Beehive salon.    

Above: In the late 1890s and early 1900s, before becoming Streets' newsagent's and stationer's, No. 39, with a veranda, was run by John Roberts, fruiterer and seedsman. Photograph from the late Kevin Bower's collection.

Above:This intrepid woman cyclist in the 1890s contrasts starkly with the two shawled lasses on the pavement outside John Roberts' shop. Photograph from the late Kevin Bower's collection.

This present-day aspect of Kirkgate on the eastern, or beck, side was opened up in the late 1970s following the demolition of an historic row of three properties, Nos. 58-62, which adjoined what is now the iXtek.co.uk computer repair, maintenance and upgrades shop at No. 56.

These are the properties that were demolished. Rob's Trading Centre and taxi service were run by Rob Whitlock.

This view (May, 1974) of the empty shops prior to demolition also shows the full frontage of No. 56 with the old stone steps up to the first floor. The steps were removed after demolition and the filled-in section can be seen in the present-day picture where the  iXtek sign is placed. The shop at that time was Maureen's hair stylist. Photograph by courtesy of Silsden Camera Club.

Advertisement hoardings were in place for several years up to the demolition of the adjoining properties. Photo by courtesy of Silsden Camera Club.

Nos. 58-62 Kirkgate in the late 1800s. These chaps, apparently amused by the photographer, are sat on the ledge of what ended up as Rob's Trading Centre. But at the time this photograph was taken it was the Wade family's boot and shoe shop, which it had been since at least 1790. John William Wade, who died in 1940, aged 81, had run the shop for many years, as had his father and grandfather before him. At the turn of the century, John William and his brother Richard were two of the UK's foremost poultry exhibitors, particularly White Leghorns and Black Minorcas. Some years before retiring, Mr Wade's son-in-law, Herbert Cooper, had taken over the business, which eventually became Cooper's shoe shop on the opposite side of  Kirkgate where the travel agency is now. Photograph from the late Kevin Bower's collection.

Another late Victorian view of this stretch of Kirkgate looking towards the gable end of what is now the Post Office, which opened there in 1907. Note the stone steps of No. 56 just behind the boys. Photograph also from the Kevin Bower collection.

No. 62 Kirkgate, which had been an ironmonger's since at least the 1870s, in the hands of Thomas Langhorne, a tin-plate worker born in 1844, and his wife Sarah. They are pictured here. Thomas died in 1900, after which the shop continued to be run for a few more years by Sarah, assisted by her son John Asquith Langhorne. Thomas was the grandfather of five well-known Silsdeners still within living memory: Eva, Sally, Lucy, Edith (Murgatroyd) and Thomas, a noted local singer.

Thomas Langhorne built and patented this 'Champion' heating apparatus for oil or gas, advertising it as giving the greatest heat it was possible to obtain from the smallest volume of oil or gas, burning 'absolutely without smell.' 

One of Silsden's most familiar figures, Mrs Winnie Barker, died on October 8, aged 93, after a lifetime of community service. Best known as a Methodist Sunday School teacher for almost three-quarters of  century, Winnie was also a regular volunteer at Aire View Infants School and active in numerous local groups, such as the horticultural and civic societies. Winnie is pictured above in the 1970s and on the right four years ago.

An early 1900s view of Kirkgate showing on the right the stretch from Nos 44-54. Revisit my September posts featuring Picturesque and Nadine's, to which I have added several photographs showing fascinating changes over the years. 

ABOVE: Knitting group at St James' Church hall. LEFT: Mrs Brenda Baldwin with some of the many dolls she has knitted as a member of a group that meets at the Methodist Church. A knitting revival is under way in Silsden. Three groups meet regularly for members to share projects and patterns and, most of all, to enjoy each other's company while pursuing an absorbing and useful craft. Members range from young mums to veterans in their 80s who have been knitting since their school days. Meeting fortnightly on Saturday afternoons, the group at St James' is the longest-established and biggest of the three with a core of 28 knitters. Another group meets each Wednesday morning at the Methodist Church and the Punch Bowl Inn hosts a weekly gathering on Thursday evenings. Nationally, groups and school clubs are flourishing and an estimated 4 million women and more than 400,000 men are knitting. Celebrities from Madonna to Jo Brand and Kate Moss to Hilary Swank are contributing to the upsurge. There is a National Knitting Week (October 14-20) and a UK Hand Knitting Association.

 ABOVE: The Punch Bowl group was formed a year ago after three of the mums had attended a crochet course in Cross Hills and decided to take up or return to knitting as well as doing other handicrafts.

ABOVE: Georgina Lovely's first attempt at knitting produced this hat for her two-year-old son Matthew. Georgina learnt to knit through the group that meets at the Methodist Church. BELOW: Also a member of the group, Alison Smith displays one of her many eye-catching patchwork designs.