Carlton Lane 1949

Just beyond the farm on the left of the lane, the low buildings were used by the Bristol Aircraft Company as an engine test facility during the war, It was later bought by a firm known as Austin Hayes and Co. who specialised in reconditioning army surplus goods e.g.Tin hats, ammunition boxes, metal Howitzer shell containers and in later years portable Rocket Launchers.
As a kid in the fifties this place was known to us as the Tin Hat factory,we thought it was marvellous.
I was employed there in 1968 when the freak storm came over from Bradford and flooded Yeadon with hailstones as big as glass marbles which quite literally stoned the birds right out of the trees and sent storm drain covers three feet high on pillars of flood water.

I was working at Billy Murg's at the time and the Hailstones filled the massive Victorian Gutters on the roofs and since the windows were open as this was midsummer they came in to the spinning dept on the top floor and seeped through into the lower floors causing flooding .It was very dark and seemed like the end of the world for a time .

cemetery road Yeadon looking towards carlton lane