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.

Vets add a new dimension to Kirkgate's commercial changes

Silsden Vets, specialising in small animals and pets, has opened at No. 74 Kirkgate, which previously was a tattoo parlour. Senior vet Kenneth Alexander and his border terrier Archie are pictured above with nurse/receptionist Deborah Troake. Silsden Vets' parent company is East Park Vets, of Harrogate. Mr Alexander will be mainly on duty in Silsden; at other times the vet will be Maria Balatsouka.

Silsden Vets adds to recent changes in Kirkgate, which include the packed opening on Sunday, February 24th, of the Old Post Office café and bar, The Yorkshire Vaper (at what was Rowlands pharmacy, between the Red Lion and Isherwood's butchers) and the C & K Nail Bar, where Nadine's used to be. I will be posting about these new businesses soon.

After the heatwave cometh the flood

Following February's record high temperatures, another freak event occurred in the town centre on Thursday, February 28th, when water from a burst pipe in Wesley Place cascaded across the Stakes Beck bridge and along the footpath by the newly-opened Old Post Office café and bar into Kirkgate.

Wesley Place was being resurfaced at the time and the job extended round the corner towards the park where the water-pipe burst. At the time of my photographs it was too early to say what exactly had happened but there were fears that the Old Post Office and adjoining properties would be affected when the water supply was turned off for repairs.

Aire View's historic line from chapel to beauty salon

The Elegance Beauty Salon in Aire View is one of Silsden's longest-established businesses. It was founded 26 years ago by Debra Camsey (left) and Sarah Callon (right) with financial help from the then government's Enterprise Allowance Scheme. Debra and Sarah are pictured with Sharon Pickles, who joined Elegance 14 years ago. The new salon caught a rising tide of demand for nail and beauty treatments, and was virtually Silsden's first specialist provider. Shellac and nail treatments in general are among the most popular of the Elegance offerings.   

The shop at 6-8 Aire View had many different occupiers up to the arrival of Elegance in May 1993. Previous outlets included pine and pottery, greengrocery (Mick and Dick's), Army and Navy type clothing store, sports supplements, wholefoods and bike shop. 

For a few years in the 1920s, the premises were home to the Bethany Pentecostal Church, which was visited by Lam Jeeveratnam, pictured above. Born in 1892, he had been raised as a Lutheran in India but was converted to evangelism at a Pentecostal rally in Leeds. He married an Englishwoman and preached around the country, later returning to India without his family.

Lam Jeeveratnam is pictured in the Bethany Church doorway with Herbert Mitchell, a Skipton Road grocer, and Mr. Mitchell's daughter Doris (later Doris Rogers, a well-known Methodist local preacher), who would have been six at the time. Before the advent of the church, the building had been the meeting room for the first Silsden branch of the Independent Labour Party, formed around 1906.