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Alex Hearfield - Introduction

Born 1933 upstairs in the Red Lion - now living in Harrogate
Family owned the Hearfield Cafe over the other side of the square.

1. Newspaper cutting from Yorkshire Post - Nov 17th 1964 - 'Last of the lorries. '
Heavy lorries rumble through Bramham village, on the Great North Road, which will be bypassed next week by the opening of a mile long stretch of single carriageway. The bypass, forms part of the Aberford-Wetherby road improvement.
Picture of lorries passing through Bramham with The Bay Horse pub in the background.

2. & 3. Funeral service of Robert Blackburn - All Saints' Church Bramham - 15th September 1955. Lord Bingley required Bramham's villagers to turn out for the funeral dressed in black.

4. Picture of a wagon filling water drums for Hope Hall. The lady is the sister of Alex and the pump is the one in the square seen on other pictures. Circa 1940's ?

5. Police car in Bramham Square with Red Lion in the background. Vauxhall with leather seats and fron facing doors for easy exit. Note the uniforms on the policemen, the tunic covered their shirts and ties.

6. Later picture of police car in the square.

7. Wetherby District Council bin men. Circa 1950's

8. Lorry used to transport POW's around the farms in the Bramham area. Farmers could apply to the 'War Agg' (War Agricultural Executive Committee) for prisoners of war to help on the farms. This lorry would drop off the POW's in the morning and then collect them later in the day to take them back to their respective camps.
One such camp was in Bramham Park and some of the prisoners there were Russian. The driver and his mate are Alec Brooks and Stan Fothergill no doubt having a break in Bramham Square. Circa 1945 ?

9. Schoolboys outside Bramham School, circa 1951 ?
Left to right, Eric Winterburn,Trevor Dowson, Robin Hill and James Hearfield.

10. Drivers of removals vans parked on the land that is now occupied by the Old Folks Shelter. They were Scottish and stayed in the Hearfield cafe over the road, Bramham being roughly half way from Edinborough to London.

11. More lorries parked up on the land that the Hearfields paid 5s a month rental for.

12. & 13. Letter to Alex Hearfield's father who was serving with the Catering Corp in the British Army stationed in North Africa.
The writer, Olivia Fenwick was the secretary of Bramham War Comforts Committee and Workers.

14. Hearfields Transport Cafe - circa 1963, just before having had the shop window altered and before the signs were taken down and it was put up for sale.

15. Dick Johnson remembers Russian prisoners visiting the village and here we have a photograph of them performing in the village hall under the guise of 'The Glorious Red Army ?' pictured here are Nikolai and Ivan

16. Nikolai - circa 1945

Memories of Alex

There was a pottery shed behind Bramham Old School and this was demolished and a bungalow built for Miss Robinson who had the Bar House.

A relative of Miss Robinson, Billy Nip, who had a small holding/market garden, used to come for water to the pump (in the square) late at night.

A wagon would come from Hope Hall to collect water from the village pump as they didn't have a water supply .

When timber men came to the village to fell the trees, their horses were kept in stables (which belonged to the Bay Horse pub) on Almshouse Hill behind Springhead House. In latter years those buildings were used by the Venetian Light company which was owned by a Mr Alexander.

The lights were dipped in sulphuric acid which was kept in a tank in part of those buildings.

There was an incident when petrol leaked from the tank under Harry Harlands petrol pumps into Springhead House.

There was an incident when the coal wagon crashed into Miss Thompson's shop. There was coal all over the road which of course soon disappeared !.

I can remember an elderley couple called Middleton who lived halfway up Almshouse Hill. They used to bake bread and then pushed it in an old black pram down the hill and then pushed it halfway up Town Hill . They sold it from a little lean to shop and Mr Middleton always wore a tatty top hat and they both were always in black.