Do you remember coal fires and visits by the chimney sweep?

They’d come and drape some thick cloth over the fireplace, then screw flexible poles together, put a big brush on the end and push it up and down the chimney to clear out all the black soot that had built up. It was necessary because soot is made up of impure carbon particles and there was always a danger that sparks from the fire would set the chimney alight.

Well, on the morning of Friday 17th October 1958, my mam managed to do just that. I remember the evil looking yellow-grey smoke coming out of our chimney pot. The problem was the Queen was due to visit Montague Burton, the founder of Burtons menswear, that very day and would be travelling back into Leeds via Hudson Road and Lupton Avenue. We lived at the bottom of Lupton Avenue. There was a mad panic, but fortunately my mam managed to put out the fire in the chimney just in time.

I still have a childhood memory of a large, gleaming black car gliding down Lupton Avenue, with Her Majesty looking regal and radiant.