MEMORIES of Christmas past can be found in these photographs of cards and celebrations from years gone by.

Dating back to at least the 1940s they show some of the much-loved traditions of the festive season which still endure to this day.

The photographs, which are from the archives of Aireborough Historical Society, were taken in Guiseley, Rawdon and Yeadon - except for a wartime Christmas greeting which was sent from The Middle East.

Two images of cards each feature Yeadon Town Hall, but depict eras a century or so apart.

A card sent by estate agents and surveyors Ackroyd and Dent dates back to 1980 and marks the town hall’s centenary. The traditional snow scene shows the market.The building features again on an undated card showing a romanticised picture harking back to Victorian times.

A Forces greeting was sent in the 1940s to Mr and Mrs Schofield of Guiseley.The Military Airgraph Service greeting was authorised by the Egyptian Postal Administration and carries the message “Together you and I we will see this thing through to the end.”

Airgraphs were invented in the 1930s in order to cut the weight of mail carried by air. Letters were written on an airgraph form before being photographed and sent as negatives on microfilm.

At their destination they were printed and delivered. It was said that 1,600 letters on film weighed 5oz - compared to 50lbs for 1,600 ordinary letters.

The scheme was used in the Second World War to help troops serving in the Middle East to keep in touch with their families back home. A service was set up between England and Egypt in 1941 with 70,000 airgraphs being sent in the first batch.

Santa put in an appearance for St Peter’s Christmas Fair in Rawdon in 1966. A group of children - some looking excited and some overawed - were pictured with Father Christmas as they made their requests for presents. The picture was taken by photographer Bryan Waite and donated to AHS his family.

Santa is pictured again, surrounded by children at Oxford Road Nursery School in Guiseley in 1950. In the middle of the front row, kneeling up and wearing a striped jumper is a young Carlo Harrison, who went on to become an archivist with Aireborough Historical Society.

Two photographs show staff and pupils at Aireborough Grammar School.

The first, taken in 1959, shows form 2C’s Christmas party. The second, in 1967, shows the school’s Christmas ball.

Aireborough Grammar School started life as Yeadon and Guiseley Secondary in 1910.

It was built after representatives of Yeadon, Guiseley, Rawdon and Menston got together in 1906 to discuss the idea of a secondary school.

It became Aireborough Grammar School in 1937 after Yeadon, Guiseley and Rawdon were amalgamated to form the new district of Aireborough.

The school was closed in 1991 and was then demolished, to be replaced with a housing estate. But a reminder of its past remains in carved stones from the school being set into the wall of the estate. The names of two of the school’s houses are also remembered in the street names Coverley Rise and Fairfax Grove.

Former pupils included cricketers Hedley Verity and Brian Close, singer-songwriter Marc Almond, rugby player Nigel Melville and Vice Admiral Sir Richard Ibbotson.

The most recent of these images was taken in 2015 by Carlo Harrison. It shows crowds outside Yeadon Town Hall waiting for the Christmas lights to be switched on.