Second World War

Special Constables. Water Haigh manager Billy Williams is second from the right on the front row. George Hudson, a sergeant in the regular police force, is second from the right on the back row. The first recorded incident of the Second World War locally was just two weeks after Germany invaded Poland when 6 year old Kenneth Walsh fell in an air raid trench and fractured his arm. The trench had been dug “by someone with good intent” on an old council rubbish tip near Back Eshald Place. A week or so later an air raid shelter was built close to the Midland Hotel and bus stops on Aberford Road. The special constables’ main duty seems to have been making sure lights weren’t showing from houses during the blackout. Their first prosecution came at the end of November 1939 when housewife Alice Roberts was fined 20 shillings at Leeds West Riding Court for “showing a light in a dwelling house.”
Oulton and Woodlesford Auxilliary Fire Service in the Second World War. This group consists of S. Neale, G. Thackrah, Arthur Thorp, H.R. Cockerill, section leader E. Bates, and Walter Scase who was a motorcycle dispatch rider. He was involved in an accident whilst on the way to a fire which had been started by a group of “yobs”.
This photo was taken of the A.F.S. at Water Haigh colliery. Ted Marsh is on the far right. Frank Higgins is third from the left on the front row. The first incident they had to deal with was on Tuesday 7 November 1939 when straw in a covered railway van at Armitage’s quarry caught fire. The alarm was raised at 5.30pm and the dense smoke meant that traffic on Aberford Road had to be diverted. The Stanley A.F.S. were also called out and it took until 7.40pm to put the fire out. Luckily incendiary bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe were few and far between during the war.
Makeshift fire engines.
Cup winners. Ted Marsh is on the left of the front row. Bill Alderson is standing behind him. Frank Higgins is on the far right of the second row.