In this photograph of the corner of Otley Road near the Cock and Bottle pub, believed to have been taken in about 1920, the young man standing on the kerb edge wearing a flat cap with his hands in his pockets is Nick Taglione Sr.

According to indefatigable T&A reader Vincent Finn, of Boston, USA, whose local the Cock and Bottle was, this man was a member of the Bradford Pals and the Territorial Army.

Mr Finn says: “I was able to confirm it was him by his son Nick Tagg Jr, who died a couple of months ago. His grand-daughter lives in Bolton Road.

“The left-hand side of Otley Road is pretty much the same as it was in the 1959 picture but the opposite side is totally different.

“That corner on the right-hand side was demolished and a new building erected. It became a Lloyds Bank branch and remained as such until the 1990s. I think now it is a printing company.

“Note the tram lines. This was the Undercliffe route. This was a very tight corner for them to turn and their wheels/brakes made a huge noise as they turned up from Church Bank.

“The shop at the corner of Paper Hall Street became Walsh the Builder. Everything else is pretty much as it was right up to the 1960s.

“There are no overhead lights, but there is a gas lamp outside Morley’s furniture shop on the left-hand side. The iron poles all have long arms on them that extend out over the road. These carried the wires for the trams.

“You can see the first pole has a ‘Stop’ sign, that was the tram stop. Later, when traffic got busier, when the tram stopped to let you off all the other traffic had to stop to let you walk to the sidewalk.”

The value of these old black and white photographs is that they show that Bradford’s cobbled roads were evidently made solid enough to withstand the weather as well as the iron-rimmed wheels of numerous coaches and carts.

In the 1920s picture there isn’t a pothole in sight.