Sharlston

There are three Sharlstons:

Old Sharlston

New Sharlston

Sharlston Common

Old Sharlston was the  original village; it is small and picturesque with farms, a green with large oak trees, a few houses, and The White Horse Pub.

New Sharlston was built to provide housing for the workers at the Sharlston Colliery which opened in 1865. It consists basically of two long streets of terraced houses. One is called Crossley Street after the owners of the pit - Crossley Carpets of Halifax, and the other is Long Row.

Whilst the houses have been extensively modernised, the village has probably changed little over the last century.

One of my distant relatives, Samuel Lord, lived at 68 High Street, now demolished, when he was Under Manager at the pit from the 1870's to around the turn of the century.

Sharlston Common is "my" village, where I lived until the age of 18. My father and his brother had a market garden that was well known in the village as "The Greenhouses" and anyone over 40 will remember them well!

                                     For a larger version, click on the photographs

There is a large common covered with gorse and it incorporates a small dam which is used for fishing and many years ago was a popular place for the kids of the village to swim in the summer.

Three large carp which had been caught in the dam were mounted  in a case on the wall in Butler's Fish and Chip shop - now the Post Office.

When I was a child there used to be a large wood which was full of bluebells. The wood is now a housing estate but was situated to the left on the path which went from Weeland Road to the Railway Station and The Picture House at Streethouse.

Sharlston is not famous for many things, but all Rugby League fans know that Sharlston was the home of the Fox brothers, Peter, Don, and Neil. (My claim to fame is that I played cricket at Streethouse with Neil!) The other Rugby League giant from Sharlston was Jonty Parkin.

In the Rugby League Hall of Fame, of the 10 players listed, two are from our small village. Quite an achievement, and there have been many other Rugby League stars from Sharlston over the years.

Sharlston can be found on the A645 mid way between Wakefield and  Pontefract.

Do you remember?

Harry Spiers' shop with the aluminium counter?

Tommy Sunley's barber shop where I got my first shaving tackle? The shaving brush is still going well but I had to change the razor blade about three years ago!

Me coming around the streets with my brothers pushing a handcart selling "Lord's home grown tomatoes, cucumbers, and fresh laid eggs".

This photograph? For a larger version, click on the photograph.

                                        Sharlston ARLFC - November 1977