“I’M really enjoying the nostalgic theme in your columns lately,” says Les Addy of Mirfield.

“To keep the dance hall memories going a little longer, here are a few of my recollections following the Venn Street stuff a few weeks ago.

“In the 1950s, dance halls catered for ballroom dancers and if you wanted to learn how to quickstep, foxtrot or waltz, many of us went to one of the dance studios in town, such as Charlie Frost’s or Stanley Atack’s, Fox’s in Trinity Street and Rawlins which was in the same block in Railway Street as the Alassio coffee bar. You learned to dance to Victor Silvester and Joe Loss records.

“You could then go to dances at Huddersfield Town Hall, Cambridge Road Baths (in winter the large pool was boarded over), the Masonic in Greenhead Road and, later on, The Grand Cinema on Chapel Hill, which turned into the Sheridan Rooms and, not long after, the famous Ivanhoe’s night club. Another cinema converted into a dance hall was the Regent at Fartown.

“Some of the dance studios, while still teaching ‘proper’ dancing, also catered for a different kind of dancer – those who wanted to jive or bop to rock and roll records. One rather famous venue in the mid 50s was Stanley Atack’s down East Parade which was also known as Chinnys and was a popular hangout of the town’s Teddy Boys.

“If you were able to go a little farther afield you could visit the new Mecca Locarno ballrooms in Bradford and Wakefield or the Majestic in Leeds, in City Square. These venues all had excellent bands.

“All gone now and, despite the popularity of Strictly Come Dancing, ballroom dancing is unlikely to regain such popular appeal again.”