A man who was born in Cleckheaton and has lived and worked most of his life there, is immortalised in a new community history gallery.

Donald Chesterman, 72, is one of 39 local people who has contributed to Spen Valley Stories which opens in the restored Victorian cart shed at Red House Museum in Gomersal on January 9.

It is about their lives in the Spen Valley captured through text, photographs, taped interviews and artefacts. Visitors will be able to listen to them briefly on hand-held audio devices.

Some recount their experiences of working at Lion Confectionery and the former Hillards supermarket in Cleckheaton; Burnley's Mill, Gomersal; Heckmondwike Co-op; living on Windybank estate in Liversedge and attending Stevenson's Dance School in Gomersal.

Mr Chesterman, who has lived in St Peg Lane for 46 years with his wife Joan, was the Labour councillor for Cleckheaton for 13 years on Kirklees Council.

In the exhibition he talks about his time as a pupil at Whitcliffe Road First School in the 1930s.

One of the exhibits features a photograph of him as a six-year-old pupil, and a copy of a notice of exams he had to take in 1937.

Mr Chesterman, who is now chairman of governors at the school, says: "In the last year, exams were taken to see if you were good enough to go to grammar school. I think that was a terrible system, picking us out at 11.''

Both his children, Gillian and Lynne, and two of his four grandchildren were pupils at the school.

After attending Whitcliffe Grammar School in Cleckheaton, Mr Chesterman joined a firm of accountants in the town at 16 and then spent three years in the RAF as a general duties clerk, based mainly in the Far East.

He then got a job at the electricity board in Cleckheaton where he remained for 23 years before starting up his own business, Spen Coaches, with his wife.

But Mr Chesterman said: "In 1977 there was a fire in the garage. I tried to tackle it and my right hand was badly injured, which meant I couldn't drive the coaches.

"I had to learn to write with my left hand. We sold the business the following year and I decided to stand for Kirklees Council.''

Brian Haigh, the Council's community history manager, said: "We hope all the stories will stimulate other people to tell us their stories to add to the gallery.''

He said the gallery was the result of two years' research, which included hundreds of hours of taped conversations and sifting through newspaper cuttings.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.