It wasn’t all snow and ice that was making the news in the winter of 1963... suds played their part as well.

On January 17, half a century ago we reported a story with a magnificent strip of pictures showing why hell hath no fury like a woman, well, not so much scorned, as stripped of a place to wash her clothes.

“About 250 angry women – and a few men – protested strongly about the closure of the Leeds Road, Bradford, washhouse when they attended a public meeting last night called to hear the housewives’ views,” we said.

The report added that though domestic washing machines were becoming popular, they were costly and there was little room to install one in a back-to-back terrace, so the majority of women in the area preferred to attend the washhouse on Leeds Road.

An alternative on Rupert Street was mooted, but: “One lady said it had taken her five-and-a-half hours from leaving her home to getting back with her clothes washed.”

Bradford was well on the way to becoming a multicultural city by 1963, and another milestone was reached when we reported – again on January 17 – that the city’s first Pakistani pub landlord had been firmly established behind the pumps.

“Wakht khatam ho raha hay paab”, we began our story, somewhat educationally. The translation of this Urdu phrase? “Time, gentlemen, please”, of course, in honour of Mr Mohammad Sayeed taking over at the Flying Dutchman on Leeds Road.

Mr Sayeed had arrived in Bradford six years before and had been working as a bus conductor, though back home in Pakistan he had run his own restaurant, and had “always wanted to live in an inn”.

Finally, a heartwarming tale about Rory, “the black-haired mongrel whom children love”, who – in the same edition of the paper – found himself “on trial for his life”.

Rory’s owner, Mrs Dorothy Pearson of Thornaby Drive, Clayton, had gone to Bradford City Court to contest a police order calling for Rory’s destruction after the dog bit a man near his home.

Magistrates were won over by loveable Rory and rejected the destruction order, instead imposing an order for him to be kept under control.