A PHOTOGRAPH taken outside a Rawdon shop more than half a century ago has prompted a reader to send in an earlier view of the store from around the time of the First World War

The photograph of 'May's shop' on Canada Road, was taken in 1962, and appeared in the Wharfedale Observer and Ilkley Gazette on February 9 this year.

After seeing the piece Shirley Gale sent in a picture of her family outside the premises in about 1915.

She said: "My paternal great grandfather was Thomas Allan Booth who was the licensee of the Fox and Hounds pub on Canada Road in Rawdon.Locally the pub was know as the Lantern, referring to a lantern which was on the exterior wall of the pub.

"The picture shows my grandmother Ethel Emma Booth at the back, my Uncle Thomas as a boy standing in the front, my father Eric being held, by who I think,is his Aunt Nelly (sister-in-law) to my grandmother.The elderly lady on the left of the picture is, my great grandmother, Thomas Allan's wife.

My father Eric was born in 1914 and I think the photograph was probably taken 1915/16, making it over 100 years old.

"I understand the photograph was found, after May's had left, when the new owners were clearing out the attic. It was passed on to my dad who of course knew it from his childhood."

In the 1990s this group of chefs from the Craiglands in Ilkley were raising money for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

First World War Sentences by Richard Thackrah

An aviator passing over Ilkley on 9 March was obliged to descend above Middleton village as parts of his engine had become frozen owing to the extreme cold. The wings of the plane became detached and were taken away on Tuesday by road traction. The plane was an object of great interest to the many who had never seen one at such close quarters.

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