Nostalgia: From the archives

Three old army friends were re-united after 27 years when a letter was sent in to the Batley News. Batley twins Alan and John Brooke met Roy Hellyer when they served in the 3 GHQ Signal Regiment.

They had been together at the Catterick camp before being posted to Cyprus, after which they lost contact.

Mr Hellyer had no success ringing people with the name Brooke in the telephone book, so he wrote to the Batley News . Alan, who lived in Heckmondwike, received various cuttings from friends and telephoned Roy.

Spenborough’s oldest resident turned 107. Eva Sugden, who was a resident at Turnsteads Home in Cleckheaton, received a telegram from the Queen and a visit from the Mayor of Kirklees, Coun Stanley Dawson, who presented her with a bouquet. Eva was a native of Scholes and a founding member of the Spenborough Ladies Lifeboat Guild.

A Liversedge couple set up an epilepsy charity after their daughter had suffered from the condition.

Gillian and Alan Day started the Dewsbury and District Association for Epilepsy, a sub-group of the British Epilepsy Association.

Their 10-year-old daughter Sarah had been diagnosed with the condition two years earlier, inspiring them to take action.

In this week 50 years ago:

A Heckmondwike headmaster praised a new style of teacher-led examinations.

Mr H Schofield, head of Heckmondwike County Secondary School, described the new Certificate of Secondary Education as “the most challenging and vital step taken in the examination field for years.”

Due to start that September, it aimed to cover a broader range of children and be set by teachers rather than external examiners.

Postal workers in Batley went on strike, leaving residents and firms without mail.

It was a response to an official strike call and pickets were in place from 5.30am, with no members turning up for work.

Three thousand people from around the country came for a service in Battyeford.

Commemoration Day of the Community of the Resurrection, which started out as a sort of tea party, was celebrated by Father Johnathan Graham.

He spoke of how Mirfield was word famous because it was the home of this community – also known as the Anglican Brotherhood.

He said: “It is a place of friendship. Friendship that is peculiar and particular and it finds great expression on this day.”

A play was then performed in the Quarry Theatre.

In this week 75 years ago:

Two houses set on fire after being struck by lightning during a violent thunderstorm.

The roof was torn off Mr and Mrs J Cosgrove’s home, in Beckett Lane, Dewsbury Moor.

Their curtains and furniture set alight because of the weather which pounded the district.

Mrs Cosgrove and her disabled daughter were at home when the lightening struck, and saw the damage.

“I screamed and called out to Mr Foley, the next door neighbour, to help me put out the flames.”

Mr Foley had thrown himself down in a near miss with the lightening on his door step, and heard Mrs Cosgrove’s screams.

He ran into the house and helped put out the flames.

The Batley School of Arts and Crafts’ Junior Art Department were praised when they held at exhibition of work at the Technical College.

An exhibition was opened by Coun GF Box, to parents and students.

Headmaster AH Andrews said: “The fact that one of these few schools is here in Batley says a lot for the progressive attitude” of the area.

An opening ceremony was held for a new nurses’ hostel of the County Borough of Dewsbury Nursing Association.

Coun G Elsie Taylor, a former Mayor of Batley and leader of Batley Nursing Association, led the ceremony at Woodlands in Leeds Road, Dewsbury.