ALL OUR YESTERDAYS Cycle badge mystery is solved!

Crawshaw, of Moor Hills, Dewsbury, dated 1898.

The badge was found in the 1940s in the car park of the Cat i’th’ Well pub in Wainstalls, Halifax, and was saved by a young boy called Trevor Shaw, now a resident of Wainstalls who lived at the pub at that time.

Ian Stevenson, the chairman of Huddersfield & District Family History Society, said: “I was soon able to discover that the original owner of the membership badge was Leonard Simon Crawshaw living in Oxford Road, Moor Hills, Dewsbury. He married in Ilkley in 1908 to Gertrude Louise Davies. I also found a photo of him in a military uniform. “The next step was to try to find any living descendants since Trevor wanted to hand back the badge to the family. The Ancestry website proved fruitful and I was able to make contact with an Andrew Crawshaw whose father Malcolm was Leonard’s nephew. “He was naturally interested but as he and his family live in Cornwall Cyclists’ Touring Club membership badge for an LS Crawshaw, of Moor Hills, Dewsbury, dated 1898, found in the 1940s at the Cat i’th’ Well pub in Wainstalls, Halifax. Pictured at the pub are (from left) Ian Stevenson, chairman of the Huddersfield and District Family History Society, Peter Charnley, from the Huddersfield and District CTC, and Trevor Shaw, whose mother found the badge when he was a young boy living at the pub the distance made it difficult for a meeting and personal handover.

“In my early investigations I had made contact with the Huddersfield & District Cyclists’ Touring Club who, although they did not have any early records of the membership of Leonard, were nevertheless very interested.”

CTC representative Peter Charnley suggested that a special badge could be made into a unique CTC trophy which could then be awarded to the winner of an annual hill climb based at the Cat i’th’ Well pub.

The badge and its connection with the pub will be an excellent memorial for Leonard Crawshaw, and the trophy will be called the Crawshaw Trophy.

The family descendants in Cornwall were delighted with this proposal and the badge has now been passed to Peter to organise the event.

Leonard was born in 1871 and by the age of nine was living on Oxford Road in Dewsbury with his seven brothers, grandmother an aunt and four servants. His father employed 20 people in his leather business in Dewsbury.

The business, S Crawshaw and Sons, had been established by Leonard’s great grandfather in 1790.

Leonard died in 1962.