The oldest is one of Scholes National School's football team in the 1921-22 season and shows the pupils proudly sporting two trophies they had won.

Their father, James senior, is pictured first left on the middle row.
The second photograph is considerably more recent, having been taken in 1965.

It shows Hartshead Rovers u18s when they played Gildersome Athletic in the Heavy Woollen District FA Blackburn Cup semi-final.

The match took place at TS Harrisons in Healey Lane, Batley, and Hartshead beat Gildersome by three goals to two.

Les was a member of the team and is pictured fourth from the left on the back row. He later played for Liversedge with great success.

He recalled that Hartshead Rovers was formed in the early 1960s by Jackson Hall, a local haulage contractor based in Windy Bank Lane, just past the junction with Peep Green Road.

It was an u18 team which competed in the Huddersfield Red Triangle League.

"The team was originally composed of local Hartshead boys and their friends who, in turn, introduced friends, with players then coming from various places within the Spen Valley area," he said.

The team played at Hartshead Rec opposite the school in Prospect Road, and the school acted as changing rooms on match days.

"The pitch was not the most level, and at one stage a temporary move was made to 'Barker's Park' - a flat meadow belonging to Farmer Barker at Church Field Farm opposite Hartshead Church. His son, Andrew, played for the team at the time," said Les.

For away fixtures to teams such as Golcar Boys, Shepley, Shelley and Huddersfield Central YMCA, the lads were transported in the team bus - a Dormobile driven by Jackson Hall's eldest son Malcolm.

"Opposition players included Frank Worthington (who later played for Huddersfield Town, Leeds, Leicester and England), his brother Bob (who played for Halifax, Middlesbrough and Notts County), and Trevor Cherry (Huddersfield, Leeds and England)," said Les.

"At the time they all played for Huddersfield Central YMCA.

"Midweek training sessions were held under floodlight in the rear garden of Jackson's bungalow, which led to a report in one of the national papers at the time, dubbing the team The Flower Bed Footballers!"

For a few years the team toured Norfolk over the Easter holidays playing fixtures arranged through a friend who had been a prisoner of war alongside Jackson, at the hand of the Japanese in World War II.

"The lasting memory is after the home game a few pints of Hammonds - and yes, we were under age - at the New Inn, Hartshead, then catching the 43 bus from Elland to Cleckheaton, into the Malt Shovel on Westgate for some Websters Bitter, and finishing the night at the Beat Dance promoted by Derek Arnold at the town hall in Cleckheaton," said Les.

The after-match drinking stood a few of the players in good stead, ready for their introduction to open-age football with Victoria AFC, formed at Harrison Gardners Victoria Dyeworks in Hightown.

"They were one of the first teams to wear black football shirts. They were based at the Shears Inn in Hightown and played in the local Spen Valley League. But that's another story...." added Les.