Mr Norman Kelk, of Lawnswood Road, Keighley, has supplied this snapshot of himself as a smartly-uniformed telegram boy in the l940s.

He stands at the bottom right in the side entrance to the former Keighley Post Office in Bow Street, with Kenny Fleet on the left and Brian Clayton and Ernie Earnshaw behind.

Mr Kelk tells a revealing story about the time he delivered a telegram to Cliffe Castle while it was the residence of Sir Frederick William Louis Butterfield.

"I rode up the main drive to the portico, leant my push-bike up against one of the pillars, rang the bell and waited," he relates.

"The huge door was opened by an elderly lady dressed all in black except for white lace cuffs and bonnet, with a chain full of keys dangling at her side. Touching my cap in a respectful salute I said, 'Telegram, ma'am, will there be a reply, please?' - this was the polite, time-honoured way for messengers to imply 'how about a tip' as well as getting more business for the Post Office."

The housekeeper led him into the hallway to wait while she went off with the telegram, soon returning with sixpence and saying, "No reply today, and the master has sent you this. And I have a tip for you as well," she added.

She escorted him out to the portico, where he picked up his bike and wondered what his second tip would be. "My tip, young man," she said, "is next time you deliver a telegram here, please use the tradesmen's entrance."