From world famous puppets to a four-legged film star, Guiseley and Menston have it all, as Sally Clifford found out

Coach parties used to flock there and queues snaked their way round the building. Now all that is left of the Harry Ramsden’s experience are memories, after the flagship restaurant, which opened in 1931, closed its doors for the final time in January.

The restaurant is being taken into a new era, thanks to the Wetherby Whaler group, which is to spend £500,000 on a refurbishment of the building, including Harry’s original white hut.

Founder Phillip Murphy called the landmark restaurant the “spiritual home of fish and chips”.

"The new Wetherby Whaler in Guiseley will be our flagship restaurant. We expect it to recapture the atmosphere and flavours of Harry Ramsden's best years,” he said.

Guiseley hairdresser Richard North has fond memories of Harry Ramsden’s. “The place was amazing, I can’t think of any other fish and chip shop in the country that would attract the coach loads of people who queued up,” he says.

Growing up in Guiseley, Richard lives in an apartment here within a converted engineering works.

“A lot of people think times are better in the past, but I think Guiseley has a much more pleasant environment,” says Richard, recalling the factories belching out smoke when he was a boy. “They disappeared, but we still have some quality manufacturing in the town. Abraham and Moons, which is 175 years-old this year, is the only textile mill in the country which takes raw wool from the raw product right through to the finished product.”

The North family’s hairdressing business celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. It began when Richard’s father, Douglas, now 95, opened a shop on Town Gate, a parade of shops in the shadow of the beautiful St Oswald’s church.

Richard’s brothers, John and David, also worked in the business. Eight years ago Richard and his wife Lisa took over the family’s stylish men’s salon further down the parade. Guiseley-born jazz singer Peter Grant was one of their most famous clients.

Guiseley, and its leafy neighbour, Menston, are ideally located for commuters into cities such as Bradford and Leeds. The Guiseley former site of world famous pram manufacturer Silver Cross, has been absorbed by a mass of modern homes after the company moved out to Skipton.

Richard says residential development should be welcomed as a positive move, particularly for the business community as it brings potential custom.

A focal point of Guiseley is its striking theatre, built in 1867 by railway director Matthew William Thompson. He gave the building to the people of Guiseley and, although it was known as the ‘town hall’, it didn’t have much municipal use. Shortly after Aireborough was incorporated into Leeds Metropolitan District, the authority considered closing the Guiseley building, but it was used by many community groups, including Guiseley Amateur Operatic Society, which took over the administration in 1985.

The society has continued to run the re-named Guiseley Theatre, and has renovated it over the years. Today’ it’s a thriving community theatre, with its own scenery construction workshop and a rehearsal room in converted wartime ARP (air raid precautions) offices. Guiseley Amateurs’ production of South Pacific runs until March 3.

A famous Guiseley son was Harry Corbett, Harry Ramsden’s nephew. Harry, who had his hair cut at the North family’s hairdressing business, entertained generations of youngsters with the hand puppet he purchased from Blackpool. Harry and his puppet Sooty went on to have their own hit television show.

Kevin Waite and his family will always remember the small part they played in Harry’s early career. Kevin, who runs his family’s funeral business in Menston, recalls Harry renting their workshop.

Formerly a joiner’s workshop, the building has now been approved for conversion into three homes, but Kevin recalls part of it being used as a studio for filming of early Sooty scenes. The building was also used for storage of props Kevin had a hand in creating.

He recalls Harry’s prop man was a talented chap who worked in the cellar of his Horsforth home. Kevin, who was in his teens at the time, would often take him chopped plywood.

Behind the building sits Kevin’s workshop. He and sons John and David are carrying on a family tradition started by Kevin’s father John. “We are very traditional, we still do as we have always done,” says Kevin.

Gordon Metcalfe, the chairman of Menston Parish Council, remembers Harry doing puppet shows for local children outside the studio.

Gordon has spent most of his life in Menston. One of the village’s most famous inhabitants, Eric Knight, created the popular Lassie children’s books about the clever collie, made into a series of Hollywood films.

According to Gordon, the village isn’t too disimiliar to the Menston he recalls from his childhood. “It wasn’t quite as busy but it isn’t a lot different,” he says.

His father was a barber and rented his White Cross premises from Harry Ramsden. He also worked at High Royds.

In recent years the former psychiatric hospital has provided a back-drop for films and TV dramas including Bodies and No Angels, and it inspired the song High Royds by the Kaiser Chiefs. Three of the band’s members, Simon Rix, Nick Hodgson and Nick ‘Peanut’ Baines, grew up in the area and attended St Mary’s School in Menston, where many other TV and sports stars were pupils.

Substantial housing development of the High Royds site has created a mini village; a combination of new properties and apartments created from the Victorian hospital building.

Menston Action Group is campaigning against proposals for 300 homes on Derry Hill and Bingley Road, areas previously designated green space.

Gordon argues that Guiseley is becoming part of an urban sprawl. “We are surrounded by Ilkley Moor to the west and Otley Chevin to the east. It’s the north and south we have to contend with,” he says.

Location and accessibility, with railway stations at both Guiseley and Menston, make the areas appealing to commuters. “It has good access to everywhere,” says Gordon. “It has good facilities. It’s just generally a nice place to live.”

Located on the busy Bradford Road through Guiseley, Adele Woodrow’s colourful millinery creations beam out from the window of her business, Eleda - Adele spelt backwards.

With only a few months to go before one of the most important dates on the racing calendar, Royal Ascot, Adele and fellow milliner, Mark Favell, are preparing for a stampede!

Their hats are regularly seen on televised bulletins of the event. Adele also supplies to stockists in Harrogate and as far as New York.

She grew up in Guiseley and, like many here, is keen to see it prosper. “Everything has to move on and progress,” she says.

The stone etching beside Guiseley’s wells in Springfield Road - the waters around which Guiseley developed as a town - reads ‘Let Nothing Impede Progress’. That is reflected in the changes that have shaped Guiseley and Menston into the communities they are today.