ALBERT Square in Yeadon has long been an important focal point of the town.

Once known as Penny Fool Hill it is said to have been the site of a house belonging to the daughter of the famous Ling Bob Witch.

Hannah Green was a celebrated fortune teller, who lived at Novia Farm, Carlton. Her successful 40-year career meant she had saved £1,000 - a vast sum - by the time she died at Yeadon in 1810.

Her daughter - also called Hannah - tried to carry on the family business, and although less successful, still persuaded the gullible to part with their pennies - hence the name given to the local area.

But Albert Square was known for much more than witches and fortune tellers - it was the bustling setting for fairgrounds, marches and markets, with pubs, shops and a mill.

These photographs from Aireborough Historical Society shows life on the square over a number of decades.

Albert Mill, top left, stood at the junction of Albert Square and the High Street for 120 years. This photograph shows its demolition in 1971. The mill was built in 1851 by Baldwin, Brown & Co for the manufacture of woollens. It was used as a military store during the Second World War. Shops and bungalows for the elderly were built on the mill site.

The undated photograph next to it shows what is thought to be the Wood Hut, which stood on Albert Square. The hut was a sweet shop for many years and also sold fishing permits for Yeadon Dam. It was later replaced with a small stone built shop.

The image below was taken before 1892 and shows a fairground on Albert Square.

The picture shows a roundabout with striped awning, an ice-cream stall, and a swing ride called Barkers Flyers. Houses at the bottom of Club Row can be seen on the right, while the New Inn on Cemetery Road, can be seen to the left.

Another photograph of a fairground, top right, was taken in 1900. The image of Yeadon Feast was captured by photographer E E Slater.

Another E E slater picture, bottom right, was taken in 1894 and shows a Band of Hope rally. The image was originally taken onto a glass slide and has been digitally transferred by John Hobson.

The Aireborough Historical Society website says: “The Band of Hope was founded in Leeds in 1847, it was a temperance organisation which hoped to make people aware of the misery and poverty which working class children suffered when adults drank too much.

“Children joined at the age of six, by the early 1900s 3.5 million adults and children had joined, Queen Victoria became their Patron.

“Yeadon had strong Methodist chapels and the Temperance Hall which opened in 1905, in contrast there were also many public houses in the area.

“Allegedly many men who were asked to sign the pledge of abstinence opted to compromise and promised to refrain from alcohol on one or two days of the week.”

A photograph taken in 1907, middle left, shows a group of men chatting in the street. The shop which can be seen on the left was built with recycled stone from the Pick and Hammer Inn which was on Harrogate Road, Carlton. The Inn, which had a bad reputation as a meeting place for poachers and other unsavoury characters, was demolished in 1883.

Next to that an undated photograph, donated by Andrew Emsley, shows the weekly market which was held on the square. The final photograph is also undated. A public telephone box - of the sort introduced in the 1920s - is in the middle of the view.