Can you guess which one is Huddersfield?

Sheila Hancock, actress Judy Cornwell, actress, Niki Lauda, former racing driver, Julie Walters, actress Nigel Planer, actor/writer, Kyle MacLachlan, actor, Devon Malcolm, former cricketer, Drew Barrymore, actress/director, HERE is a comparison of two towns – both struggling but using different techniques to pull in the punters and revitalise the shopping district.

Town number one attracts motorists by offering free parking all day Saturday and Sunday.

With no parking charges and no need to rush back to the car, the punters are free to spend as long as they like in the town centre.

The free parking is not restricted and motorists are able to stay as long as they wish without worrying about car parking charges.

Staying longer means spending more and the shopkeepers are getting the benefit.

The attractive new market halls are also a real attraction for the shoppers and they cannot fail to be impressed by the new construction taking place.

This town has a different word for motorists; they call them shoppers. This town favours the carrot over the stick.

Town number two has a different policy, favouring the stick over the carrot.

Motorists are treated as an inconvenience and are all monitored to ensure they do not drive along town centre roads that are reserved for public transport.

Car parking is chargeable at all times, even Sundays, and the council has recently announced a price rise.

Fining the motorists brings in much money for the council coffers.

If a motorist, rushing back to their car, should drop, unnoticed, a sweet wrapper from his pocket while pulling out his car keys then the litter police will surely be on hand to slap a fine on the hapless motorist.

This town calls motorists a nuisance.

One of READING Mike Shaw’s ‘All Our Yesterday’s’ description of the winter of 1947 brought to the fore vivid memories which I have never forgotten.

I lived high above Holmfirth and Hinchliffe Mill and attended Honley Grammar School which unfortunately never closed. Also I don’t remember the buses on Huddersfield Road ever stopping.

The snow on the roads from Holmfirth and Hinchliffe Mill to Hillhouse where I lived was level with the top of the walls and was frozen so solid that we walked on top.

After a couple of days off school to dig our way out and make paths through the snow I slipped and slid through the wooded areas and fields at a 45 degree angle to get to Hinchliffe Mill for the 8am bus to Honley.

Two weeks into the freeze-up, Holmfirth council workmen shovelled a path about 18ins wide under the wall so that people could carry their shopping back more safely.

No vehicles got through for six weeks. Coal had to be pulled up by sledge from Holmfirth station yard 3-4 miles. Nobody stayed away from work.

Like Mike, we as children had great fun sledging down the fields. We were made tough in those days by the conditions.

There has never been a snowfall like that since that lasted so long.

I also remember seeing Fenella the Holmfirth tiger walking around on a lead and in the garden at the top of Rotcher where the Overends lived then.