THE mystery behind this splendid photograph has been solved.

It was published in last week’s family history page profile on Jos Longbottom who worked at ICI for many years and was very much involved in organising its flower and veg show.

His nephew, Stewart England, has been researching the family and remembers speaking to Jos about the photograph not long before his death in 1984.

And it was a pub – not an ICI – outing and the year is thought to be around 1929.

The pub was The Bay Horse on Albert Street, Lockwood.

Jos is the young chap standing in the bus doorway – he would have been aged around 20 then – and Stewart reveals that the man in the bowler hat (fifth from left) is George Shepley Pearson who was Jos’ stepfather and Stewart’s grandfather.

The small man in the trilby and holding the pipe in the middle of the photograph was a dentist called Mr Tyas who had a dental practice at Lockwood Road near to Rashcliffe Hill.

Stewart said: "He was so small that when he did an extraction from large men he had to put his knee on their chest! He did that to my father.’’

The young man who is fourth from right is Edward Pearson – known as Teddy.

He was George Pearson’s son but had tuberculosis and died from his illness during the Second World War.

Fifth from right is Lawrie Wilson who lived at Mount Pleasant and he was the local plumber for Lockwood.

Stewart says he was a familiar sight as he pushed his tools around on a handcart.

Jos and the Pearson family lived at Bath Street in Lockwood – and there used to be a swimming pool there called Lockwood Baths.

Seventh from the right wearing the double-breasted suit and the party hat is Walter Pearson who was another of George Pearson’s sons.

Stewart – a retired teacher who now lives at Waterlooville near Portsmouth – said the Pearson family lived in a house at the corner of Bath Street and Albert Street which had two front doors and two numbers as one door was on Bath Street and the other on Albert Street.

Jos served in 214 Battery 63rd Medium Regiment Royal Artillery and was evacuated from Dunkirk.

He later fought in Burma and set sail for India in 1942.

Stewart – who lived in Bath Street and moved away from Huddersfield when he went to college aged around 20 – said: "He was the epitomy of the sergeant major, but not in a barking way. He had a quiet presence about him.’’

Lawrie’s daughter, Norma Hanson, was able to provide some more information as three of the people on the photograph were keen swimmers at Lockwood Swimming Club which her father helped to set up.

She recalls that Jos was a swimmer along with Harry Dyson (second right) and Charlie Hirst (extreme left).

"I know that photograph very well from my childhood,’’ she said.