Happy New Year to you too Peter, hope its a good one Aren't you lucky, having your gran's diaries, I bet they make interesting reading!! I'll see what else I can find to add to them for you. I think maybe the Gala was at Pontefract Castle as I can't think of anywhere else. If you 'google' it you will find lots of interesting pages about our ruined Castle. They still have things going off there eg. Liquorice Festival (& St George's Day) shows with stalls, hog roast & re-enactments. Alexandra Theatre (or Alex as everyone called it) was in Tanshelf, but sadly that building was also demolished. A nightclub was built there, but for past couple of years has not been in use. Our local paper is 'Pontefract & Castleford Express' www.pontefractandcastlefordexpress.co.uk you could write them a letter, maybe get more information from the townfolk when they read it. There was a very informative magazine called 'Pontefract Digest' (also one called 'Knottingley & Ferrybridge Digest' which later they united for few months) before sadly calling it a day, & stopped printing. There are two websites that went with the mags, which you can still view the stories & photos. One part I'm sure will interest you is the newspaper section 'Years in Focus' - not all the years were finished, but I'm sure one or two had stories about the acts or boxing at the Alex: www.pontefractus.co.uk Check these two websites out too Peter there are thousands of photos to view www.twixtaireandcalder.org.uk www.wakefieldmuseums.org I'm sure you will enjoy the sites & find something that will add to your gran's diaries, please let me know if I can help anymore, best of British Maureen Tanshelf Reunion - Sunday 27th Feb 5pm-11.30 at Halfpenny Lane Club, Pontefract -----Original Message----- Hello Maureen, Happy New Year to you too. Can't help you directly with any of this, but what I can tell you is hat I have my grandmother's engagement diaries, from 1908 to 1914, hen she and her 2 sisters were 'The Sisters Eston'. They had been formed in to a trapeze act by their father Joseph STONE, nd Eston was a corruption of the family name. In 1908, they were iving at Woodhousehill Mount, Hunslet Carr, and they then moved to rinity Terrace, Rothwell. After that, they moved to Kippax. In the week commencing May 16th, 1910, they played at the Pontefract astle Gala; that's the wording in the diary, I have to presume that his was a theatre/music - hall, of some description? Earlier that year, in the week commencing Jan17th, they played a week t the Alex T, Pontefract. [I presume T means theatre]. These establishments may have been in the Tanshelf area? Would be interesting to know if the buildings are still standing? Do you know if your local newspaper has an archive dept. that has etails of the Pontefract theatres? Kind regard, Peter in New Zealand n 1/4/11, Maureenpontefhs <maureenpontefhs@aol.com> wrote: HAPPY NEW YEAR to one & all, hope you knock some walls down this year TANSHELF REUNION