Recent columns have covered the pub history of Folly Hall and Chapel Hill.
Dan Crines supplied three very nostalgic photographs of the area taken in the 1980s by his father. He also recalled his own teenage years in Primrose Hill.
Whoops, I said. Sounds like an invitation for more nostalgia.
I wasn’t wrong. Old friend Mike Shaw, of Linthwaite, says: “Mention of Pip Hill made me recall a memorable cricket match I was involved in.
“I was playing for Marsden against Primrose Hill when I was 16 or 17 in about 1950. Ken Taylor, who went on to play for Yorkshire and England, was in the Primrose Hill side.
“I was batting. A ball came down and I played it with the middle of the bat. Somebody appealed for leg before wicket and, to my amazement, the umpire gave me out.
“I didn’t argue. I just walked off.
“I was wending my woeful way back to the pavilion when the Pip Hill captain stopped me. He was an avuncular father figure of a cricketer and he said: ‘Did you hit it?’ I said: ‘Yes.’
He said: ‘I thought you did. Get back in.’
“I think that must be extremely rare to be given out by the umpire but sent back in by the opposing captain. I’ll always remember Primrose Hill Cricket Club for being so sporting.”
Martin Scott was born and brought up in Primrose Hill, although he has lived in Shepley for 30 years. He also remembers Ken Taylor, who was born in 1935 and lived in Orchard Terrace until he was 11.
Martin lived across the road. Ken played football for Town and cricket for Yorkshire and England as well as studying at London’s Slade School of Fine Art.
His brother Jeff was a professional footballer for Town, Fulham and Brentford and also an opera singer who performed alongside Pavarrotti at Glyndebourne.
Martin followed Ken’s cricket career after being taken to Yorkshire County matches from an early age.
He says: “In his biography, ‘Ken Taylor Drawn To Sport’, he talks about life in Orchard Terrace and refers to the time he spent playing cricket behind his house in a ginnel.
“The ginnel is still there. He suggests this is where he learnt to play the ball straight and, consequently, enabled him to play many straight drives for county and country.
“I have many happy memories of playing football, touch and pass and cricket in Orchard Terrace.
“Coats, jackets and jumpers were used for goal posts and wickets were chalked on an appropriate wall.
“Up until a few years ago there was still a faint trace of the original marks.
“Games were enjoyed for hours on end and were not seriously disturbed by the movement of traffic.
“Happy days.”
And as for sporting heroes, they don’t make them like Jeff and Ken Taylor any more.
