WITH preparations for Christmas feeling very different this year these pictures show how the run-up to the festival was celebrated in previous decades.

From a wartime momento to a church pageant, they are all from the archives of Aireborough Historical Society and show just some of the ways the season was marked in years gone by.

A Christmas card donated to AHS by Helen Collins is from the First World War and shows a soldier called Dixon.

The verse reads :

“Just a word to bid you think of me

Just a kindly wish and hope that all

Happiness and fair prosperity

This glad season to your lot may fall”

A later, undated photograph was donated by Anne and Ken Yeadon. It was sent to M D (Peggy) Haigh from the Samuel Ledgard Society. Peggy worked as a conductress on Ledgard’s buses and is fondly remembered by passengers for her forthright attitude and sharp wit.

The Samuel Ledgard bus company came to be highly regarded following its formation in 1912. It was established by innkeeper Samuel Ledgard after he had started a haulage operation and noticed other firms were turning their lorries into basic ‘buses’ at the weekends to offer people trips.

After buying his first charabanc, his travel business grew rapidly and in 1924 the company’s distinctive blue and grey-coloured buses, which went on to serve routes across Wharfedale, Aireborough and Horsforth, first appeared.

Mr Ledgard died in 1952, aged 77, passing the running of the business on to his son, Tom.

By the time of its takeover in 1967 the Samuel Ledgard fleet comprised some 112 vehicles.

A photograph taken in 2015 by archivist Carlo Harrison shows a busy scene at a Yeadon Charities Association Christmas Fair held in Yeadon Town Hall.

The top right photograph was taken in 1948 and shows a Christmas party at Rawdon Littlemoor School Youth Club. It was donated by Eddie Jenkinson.

Underneath that is a picture of a scout and guide fair taken in Guiseley in 1971. The image shows a stall selling Christmas cards and wrapping paper at the 14th Airedale Scout and Guide Fair.

A number of names have been supplied. They are - Graham Kirkbright, Stewart Rooney, Philip Slater, Catherine Buttle, Keith Webster, J Leach, Tim Leach, Gillian Brewer and Rachel Buttle.

A Christmas pageant at St Johns Church in Yeadon is the subject of a picture next to that.The first stone of the parish church was laid in1843 by Benjamin Thompson.

A newspaper report from the time said: “New Church at Yeadon in the Parish of Guiseley. On Wednesday last, April 5th, the foundation stone of the above intended new Church was laid by Benjn. Thompson Esq. of Park Gate, Guiseley. One acre of ground for the site and Churchyard was given by Richard Barwick Esq. of Low Hall, Yeadon. The stone for the Church was given by John Womersley Esq. Mawcroft House, Rawdon.”

A picture of a Guides Christmas fair was taken in Guiseley in 1957. Some of those pictured are Christine Hall, Pam Brown, Christine Webster, Margaret Armitage, Christine Rushworth, Mary Barrett, Isabel Houseman, Kay Spencer, Pam Maude, Marian Webster, Hazel Wilkinson, Brenda Wilkinson, Elizabeth Armitage, Ethel Potts, Cynthia Goodall, Barbara Cutler, Edna Hall, Nell Sedman (Potts), Lucy Rushworth and Mrs Webster.

A photograph of an old folks party is undated and was donated by Alan Pickles. The venue is unknown, but it is believed it may have been taken in one of the local chapels.