<P> The Asquith family were butchers based in Knottingley, West Yorkshire . In the 1920s, their rising aspirations meant that they expanded their business to seven butchers shops in the area . Their sons, Peter and Fred, later became founding members of Asda . </P> <P> Around the same time, a group of West Riding dairy farmers, including the Stockdale family and Craven Dairies, joined together under the banner of J.W Hindell Dairy Farmers Ltd . This company diversified in 1949 to become Associated Dairies and Farm Stores Ltd, with Arthur Stockdale as the managing director . </P> <P> In 1963, the Asquith brothers converted an old cinema building, the Queens in Castleford, into a self - service supermarket . Another swiftly followed in the old indoor market at Edlington, near Doncaster . Both stores traded under the name of' Queens' . Their next store was a purpose - built supermarket in South Elmsall, near Pontefract on the site of the old Palace cinema . </P> <P> In 1965, when the Asquith brothers approached Associated Dairies to run the butchery departments within their small store chain, a merger was proposed . So they joined together with Noel Stockdale, Arthur Stockdale's son, to form a new company, Asda (Asquith + Dairies) (capitalised from 1985). </P>

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