FOLLOWING the 'Then and Now' feature on the Old Town Hall in Middle Row in Skipton's High Street and the letter from Michael Townson about the Chinese Restaurant next door known as Yi Din Haw I remember it well as I used to work in Hepper Watson and Sons who were in 76 High street immediately adjoining the Old Town Hall on the other lower side. This was in the late 1960s and the 1970s.

The restaurant was run by Mr and Mrs Lee and he was Chinese and his wife English.

I used to fondly imagine that the name Yi Din Haw was 'Chinese Yorkshire' meaning Yer Dinner!

No 76 is very small and we were always short of space.

There was a recess in the wall on the ground floor on the town hall side and we wanted to fit a filing cabinet in it but it would not go in quite far enough. What was needed was a hammer and chisel to chip away at the stones sticking out at the back.

All was going well until suddenly the the back wall of the recess fell away into the cellar beneath the town hall with Mr Lee and a lot of other Chinese faces looking up at me. We were able to see into the cellar and there were large tables all growing bean sprouts.

Fortunately Mr and Mrs Lee saw the funny side of it and we repaired the wall and got the filing cabinet in.

I also remember when we first moved into No 76 that there were lot of old letterheads and invoices in the back of cupboards of the 'Celebrated Pork Pie Shop' so perhaps that was there before moving to Mill Bridge?

If you look at No 76 from the High Street and the way it was constructed you can tell that it was once just a passageway between the Old Town Hall and the rest of the Middle Row.

Next to Yi Din Haw there was Hodgsons who were butchers and also game dealers.

There used to be rows of rabbits,hares and pheasants hanging up and also an occasional large deer hanging outside. Can you imagine that today! Beyond that on the end of Middle Row was the much missed Manby's ironmongers shop where you could buy absolutely everything from mole traps and cow chains to fireplaces. It added a lot of character to the High Street.

David Aynesworth

Appletreewick