Village old and new.

One Street 8
These are Lane End cottages just behind the Post Office. Long Lane becomes Harden Road at this point although it is likely that this is relatively new name.

Part of Lane End was demolished in the 1960's when the new PO and Butcher's shop were built. Behind Lane End there are two remaining cottages from Spring Row also demolished at this time. I have a cine recording on DVD made at the time produced by the Congregational church from films they found in the cellar. They were made by church benefactor Leslie Fouracre who lived in a large house in the village, now demolished to make 6 new 'executive' dwellings!

The films show village scenes from the '50's, '60's and early ,70's. The workmen doing the demolition had no safety gear - not even hard hats - standing on roof tops hammering at walls with flames rising from the interior of the houses and cars blithely driving by. How Health and Safety has changed in the intervening years!

The bank in front of the houses also held cottages - the end one was a pub called The Prince of Wales. In the Potting Shed cafe, at the garden centre, there are lots of old photos of Harden and Bingley. There they have a picture of this pub and it says it is on Low Side, Harden. These properties and the ones across the road (not sure of the name of this - I must consult the Harden oracle!)were removed to widen the road. You can see the high retaining wall across the road where the houses stood and on the extreme left the blackened area of the wall where fires burned the rubble.

Beyond this you can see the latest development in the village. Three storey houses - 4 complete and 4 still under construction. Until quite recently there was a petrol station here.

Interestingly the population of the village hasn't changed very much. As a 'mill' village there were lots of small houses like these with big families, with considerable development since the late 1950's more of the village is covered with property but fewer people live in them. Now we are mainly a satellite village for towns and conurbations nearby in West Yorkshire

At the end of Lane End opposite the new development is Ferrands Park.- a future blip perhaps.