Idle in 1960 (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Idle in 1960

4:39pm Thursday 8th January 2009 in From the Air By Mike Priestley

Idle still had its station buildings (just visible at the bottom of the picture) and the railway passing through it in this undated though probably early 1960s photograph taken by CH Wood.

Printing company Watmoughs (bottom right, next to the railway) was then one of the village’s major employers.

The site it occupied is now filled with houses, as is the company’s other site in New Street (off the bottom right-hand corner). Idle Church School above it has also gone, to be moved down Town Lane (running up the right-hand topside of the picture).

The open fields in the bottom left-hand corner were shortly to be filled by a Hillards supermarket and are now occupied by the Dunnes store.

The railway bridge at the bottom of High Street went along with the railway. In the centre of the picture is the old chapel at the bottom of Westfield Lane, currently one of the three buildings put to good use by theatre group Stage 84.

Picture used by permission of Bradford Museums, Galleries and Heritage.