[Arthur Gill lived at Claro Place, Leeds until he was 8 years old]

A few things attracted me while living at Claro Place. A “German band” now and again used to play in the streets. The band consisted of about half a dozen players with various wind instruments. It was said they were actual Germans, who for some reason or another had come over to England to find work. I remember also a man with a black dancing bear attached to a chain, he had a wind instrument, and somehow managed to get his bear on its two hind feet to do a so-called dance. It was great fun for us. His object of course was to collect coppers for the performance – I don’t think, in these modern days this would be allowed. The old “Hurdy-Gurdies” or “Tinglearies” (as we always called them) were very often in the streets. These were a type of piano on a two-wheel cart. The man in charge would twine the handle attached to his instrument and out would roll the tunes,- chiefly popular song tunes of the day that every boy was whistling. These “Tinglearies” were very popular and many people, including shop-keepers engaged the “Tingleary Man” to call on them when they were in the district. 

Occasionally a “Tingleary Man” had a monkey on the top of his instrument as an extra attraction. -- it was said that some of these men made a “good thing” out of it. To change the tunes of these instruments, a new punched roll or ribbon had to be inserted.- the same principle I think as on a “Pianola”. The mill girls used to dance in the open air to the Tingleary. Sad to say, the Tingleary (like the railway steam engine) is now a thing of the past- or a “Museum Piece”.