We've an especially tasty nostalgia picture gallery for you this week, as we look back at the history of the Bradford-based Aagrah curry house chain, which is celebrating 40 years in business.

Group chairman Mohammed Sabir started the business in 1976 as a mobile takeaway, operating from his cherished Commer Van, known as the Spice Pot.

Mr Sabir started the business while continuing his day job as a bus driver, working 18-hour days to get the business up and running.

It was while doing his day job that Mr Sabir’s luck changed as he struck up a friendship with a Barclays Bank manager who regularly travelled on his bus. After months of informal conversations, he was offered the chance to borrow £20,000 to develop his business, allowing him to develop a small unit in Westgate, Shipley, which he had previously bought.

He sold the Spice Pot for a profit of £300 in 1977 and used the loan to transform the former plumber’s shop and bakery into a 40-seater restaurant – the first Aagrah restaurant.

Since then Mr Sabir and his brother Mohammed Aslam, the group's managing director, have built the business into the UK's largest Kashmiri restaurant chain. 

Our gallery captures some of the flavour of that journey.