Brass was on the menu at the world's most famous fish restaurant when bands angled for the musical catch of the day.

Todmorden Old Band carried off the £600 first prize in Harry Ramsden's 70th jubilee brass band competition held at the firm's headquarters in Guiseley yesterday.

Ten bands turned in fine musical performances at the event and now Todmorden will go on to perform again in Guiseley in September with a chance to take part in Ramsden's national brass band masters competition.

It was one of a number of attractions across the district over the weekend which attracted large crowds, despite heavy rain.

Yesterday crowds flocked to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway which staged a Thomas the Tank Engine Day.

Star of the tracks was of course Thomas himself while striding the platforms and overseeing the fun was Sir Topham Hat, alias the Fat Controller.

There was lots of fun at Beechcliffe and Utley Gala in Keighley, but for Coun Barry Thorne (Lab, Keighley West) there was no dodging a soaking as gala-goers lined up to pelt him with wet sponges.

Rugby player John Bentley was guest star at the Laura Crane Sports and Country Fair at the Old Brodleians Rugby Club in Hipperholme yesterday in aid of the Laura Crane Trust, a charity set up in memory of a Brighouse High School pupil who died of cancer two years ago, already raising an impressive £60,000.

The Bishop of Bradford, the Right Reverend David Smith, and Keighley MP Ann Cryer were among those at a special concert at St Michael and All Angels Church in Haworth yesterday to mark the 150th anniversary of the deaths of Emily and Branwell Bronte.

Emmerdale actor Christopher Chittell, who plays devious wine bar owner Eric Pollard in the Yorkshire TV soap, opened the summer exhibition of the British Watercolour Society at the Kings Hall and Winter Gardens in Ilkley which will raise funds for Leukaemia Research and Macmillan Nurses.

There were more than 200 prickly customers on display in a show run by the Bradford branch of the British Cactus and Succulents Society at Shipley library on Saturday.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.