Crumbs! Serving up special treats for mums' special day

Aimee Mcnulty (pictured above), owner of Crumbs, the popular cafe and cakes caterer in Briggate, and her team provided 340 boxed-up afternoon teas and cup cakes over the Mothering Sunday weekend. Aimee, a former South Craven School student, is a member of Silsden's well-known Mcnulty footballing family and took over the Crumbs business five years ago. She has been exceptionally busy during the Covid 19 lockdown, which has closed pubs and restricted all cafes to a takeaway service.  

The shopfront has been tastefully decorated with this eye-catching balloon garland provided by Ribbons & Bloom, of Bingley. The door bow matches the window display celebrating both Mother's Day and Easter.

New era in Briggate as iconic DIY shop changes hands

Michael and Julie Whitaker (pictured above) have completed their first six months as the new owners of the Briggate DIY shop, which stocks around 4,000 products. Michael was a printer for 40 years before acting on his ambition to own a DIY shop, having always enjoyed doing home improvements. Julie helps in the shop, now named Whitakers, when her job as a Bradford council support teacher, working with children in care, permits.

Michael and Julie took over the shop, previously known as Paul's DIY, last August after owner Paul Waddington retired. There was much relief when it was found that the new owners were to continue the business as a DIY shop. They say they have greatly appreciated the welcome and support they have received. Paul Waddington ran the shop for 40 years, during which time he established himself as a local character. His parents, Eric and Mary,  also traded in Briggate as proprietors of a fish and chip shop between 1962 and 1983.

Exercising in lockdown, more and more people discover the delights of Silsden's lanes and uplands

It must be many years since people in such large numbers have walked the lanes and moors around Silsden, taking advantage of permission to exercise locally during lockdown. Young people, elderly residents and families have found the countryside a perfect outlet for relief from the restrictions imposed to try to halt the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

The last day of February was blessed with glorious sunshine and warmth that felt more like the first day of summer than the day before the start of spring. Among the popular walks were the lanes to Nab End, and the ridge route across the moor to Ilkley.

This memorial seat with panoramic views into Wharfedale was seldom vacant as hikers stopped for a coffee and snack, or simply a rest.

The path across the heather was particularly busy. As well as being a fine vantage point, the moor is an important habitat for flora and fauna. Red kite and buzzards are frequently heard, if not always seen, in territories between the trig point and the plantations.

Silsden, viewed from Nab End, sits perfectly in its Aire Valley surroundings. In the last week of February, large numbers of curlews and smaller flocks of lapwings returned to breed in the sunlit uplands and riverside fields. And joy of joys, skylarks were singing on high. 

Sykes Lane, Keighley Road and Woodside Road face major development as eight sites are earmarked for 580 new homes

Historic Sykes Lane stands to be obliterated if revised allocations of land for housing go ahead. The large sand-coloured areas on the above map represent sites for 447 new homes. The map is bisected by the Leeds-Liverpool canal. Above the canal are the Woodside Road fields, where 146 homes could be built. Immediately below the canal is the land either side of Sykes Lane, earmarked for 145 houses. Adjoining that area is the Keighley Road site, consisting of the former Riverside Works factory car park and other associated land (156 houses). The five smaller allocations are: North Dene Road (43 homes); Bolton Road/Brown Bank Lane (40 houses); Aire View School in Elliott Street (21 dwellings); Hothfield Street School (22 houses); and Dradishaw Road (7 homes).

The Slingsby family are among the users of the nine smallholdings and pens in Sykes Lane who will have to move if the site is developed. Allen Slingsby, who breeds cob horses, is pictured above with his wife Jenny, their daughter Leah (right) and two-year-old son Tommy, who is seated on Woody, a 12-year-old cob. With them is family friend Olivia McRink.

Sykes Lane has been home to pen-holders for as long as anyone can remember. It was also the home of the town's first recreation ground, opened in 1914, before the park was created in 1934. Records indicate Sykes Lane was in existence by 1565 and legend holds that it once was the only route into Silsden from the Steeton side of the River Aire.

Recent research by Dave Mason, who chairs the Silsden Local History Group, shows Sykes Lane on the Silsden settlement map of 1757; at its farthest extent the lane reached to Syke Close, a group of water meadows near the river. The word 'syke' in the Scots language is a small stream, rill or watercourse that crosses flat or boggy ground. Mr Mason says the lane was named after the syke-like marshy water meadows into which it led from the village. The canal-side Banks development by Harron Homes has robbed the adjoining stretch of Sykes Lane (pictured above) of its solitude and charm. The new allocation, if it goes ahead, will turn the whole area either side of the lane beyond The Banks into a huge housing estate.

These fields beyond the pens between the lane and the canal will be lost to housing if Bradford district council's draft Local Plan is adopted. The government has obliged all councils to identify land to meet projected housing demand.

The target for Silsden is 700 new homes between the years 2020 and 2038. After allowing for development already in the pipeline, the council has now identified three brownfield sites and five greenfield sites which could accommodate the remaining 580 homes to meet its target for Silsden.

The Keighley Road allocation, partly viewed above looking towards The Banks estate, is earmarked for 156 homes. Silsden's first textile mill was near this section of the site, which for years included a woodyard.  

Work is already under way at the Keighley Road site, pictured above from Sykes Lane, looking towards the sports ground.

The Woodside Road site, accommodating146 homes, consists of three agricultural fields by the canal. The picture above shows part of the site. The council says that a bird survey will be required and that sensitive design and layout will be required to mitigate "landscape impacts". 

 

Hundreds of trees planted as support for  Silsden park grows

The Barrett family (pictured above) were among local people who answered a call to help plant 250 saplings in Silsden park on Saturday, March 14th. Richard and Rachael Barrett and their 11-month-old daughter Suzie joined in the "Great Tree Planting Day" organised by the Friends of Silsden Park alongside the charity Trees for Cities in partnership with Bradford Council's parks and green spaces department.

The Friends of Silsden Park came into being in autumn 2017 when it was realised that Bradford Council, debilitated by the then government's austerity measures, intended to reduce maintenance to a minimum. Friends' chairman Richard Barton, a Silsden town councillor, is pictured above with founder-members (left to right) Anne Knight, who specialises in tree work, Dorothy Leary and Mags Croft.

Trees for Cities supplied the 250 saplings for planting on the park slope opposite Fletcher Avenue and in the boggy south corner of the park by Mitchell Lane. Trees for Cities' Mel Frances (right), who runs the charity's edible-playgrounds network, is pictured at the plant-in with volunteer Lucia Gomez.  

Above: Bob Thorp (in baseball cap), of Bradford Council's parks and green spaces department, provided equipment and oversaw the volunteers. The partnership between Trees for Cities and the council has additionally resulted in 1,250 trees being planted, mainly on the sloping area between the two rugby pitches, leaving a 20-metre clear strip for the sledge run.

Above: also helping with the planting on March 14th were left to right Caroline Whitaker, who is a member of Silsden town council and leader of the Plastic Free Silsden initiative, Joyce Kilvington, who chairs the Friends of Silsden's Green Places, and local resident Jackie Bates. All the park's saplings have been planted without plastic tree guards. Instead, stakes and close-planting have been deployed. Oak, hawthorn, holly, rowan (mountain ash), blackthorn and Scots pine will add to the park's established trees, a dazzling highlight of which are the flowering cherry trees each spring. Also, the Woodland Trust have donated around 100 hedging saplings, which have been planted on the east side of the park.   

As well as transforming the tree cover, the Friends of Silsden Park have reinstated the flower beds above the bowling green and tennis courts, planted more than 1,000 daffodils and hundreds of bluebells. The emphasis is on pollinator-friendly plants for the borders. Plantings have been designed and sourced by Joyce Grant, who is pictured above. Silsden residents and the Friends of Silsden Green Places have also donated shrubs and plants. The Friends of Silsden Park have received funding from the Town Council, Skipton Building Society's Grassroots Giving and the Harry Beverley Tillotson Trust. Practical support has come from Bradford Council and other agencies and businesses.  

Preparing the ground for Silsden's new primary school

Preparatory work has started on the site of Silsden's new primary school off Hawber Cote Lane. Galliford Try, a major national construction firm, is first creating access to and from the site for works traffic prior to building the school, which is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2021. Catering for up to 640 pupils, the new premises will replace the Hothfield Street and Aire View schools.

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.