THESE ladies, photographed outside Steeton Methodist Chapel in about 1910, are dressed to perform an entertainment called An Old-Time Village Wedding.

This was especially popular for Nonconformist social events. It was in Yorkshire dialect, could be embellished with local and topical allusions, and all the parts, male and female, were played by women. Its cast included a bride and groom, best man and bridesmaids, a squire and his lady, a policeman, a soldier, and four “gossipers” called Molly, Betty Biddy and Nancy. It was all good homely fun.

The ladies of Hermit Hole Methodists gave it in 1942, and the West Lane Baptists in 1954. Silsden Bethesda Methodists performed it on at least three occasions from the 1920s onwards.

According to group photographs, the cast could range from a couple of dozen to 50 or more, depending on the number of players available. This Steeton offering seems to be minus the policeman and the soldier – whose costume, incidentally, changed over the decades from Edwardian dress uniform to Second World War battle-dress.

The photograph has been supplied by Mr Robin Longbottom, of Providence Lane, Oakworth, whose future grandmother, Miss Margaret Baldwin, sits fourth from the left on the second row back, beside her top-hatted sister Lena.