Not a sight you will see that often - Brighouse St Martin's Parish Church having a make over. This photograph is dated May 1973, just a couple of years to go and it will be 50 years ago. (Photo courtesy of Stuart Sands).

It was announced on Sky Business news this morning that more branches of the Spanish owned Santander Bank are set to close. The reasons given by the bank are owing to the changes in customer behaviour since the start of the pandemic. The bank also said that most of those affected are less than three miles from another Santander branch. All its current and business account holders can continue to bank at 11,000 Post Office branches nationwide.

Amongst the seven in West Yorkshire to close is the Santander Bank office in Brighouse. This will close on July 21, 2021 and will inevitably leave a big gap on Commercial Street.  Following other bank closures over the last couple of years the number of banks in Brighouse are disappearing very fast.  

Here are some members of the Bailiff Bridge Townswomen's Guild at their summer meeting on July 17, 1990.  Sadly, this and like many other T&G's had to close down. As members were all getting older and not able to attend meetings on a regular basis or they may have passed away. The membership numbers were reduced to such a small group it was no longer a viable Guild anymore. This meant that as the Guild officials were also getting older as well and no one taking on what I refer to a 'top table job', it was inevitable the Guild had to close.

The building in the fore-ground of this view at the top of Mill Lane is the solicitor's office Rice Jones and Smiths. The archway to the left of the office led through a passageway into what was Baines Row and beyond that took you into the Victoria Mills complex. These mills dated back into the nineteenth century and brought prosperity to the town and an abundance of jobs for local people and many living beyond the town. The Under Offer sign to the right of the photo gives a clue as to what was to come later. The site was sold and today it is where Sainsbury's Supermarket is.  (Photograph and copyright courtesy of G, Foster).