Dodgy dealings in Victorian Keighley have been unearthed by a graduate studying the history of the town's three parks.

Lynn Macgill was amazed to learn how class prejudice and upper-crust wheeler-dealing were rife, especially in setting up Victoria Park.

At the forefront was textile mogul Henry Isaac Butterfield, who did not want to see the 'hoi-polloi' using a centuries-old lane through his landscaped grounds at Cliffe Castle.

So he managed, by a cunning use of the House of Commons, to have Dark Lane closed when Keighley Town Council's application went through Parliament in 1892.

Interestingly, Mr Butterfield had contributed a generous £5,000 towards the setting up of Victoria Park.

Mrs Macgill, 50, of Greenhead Lane, Utley, discovered the story while going through the archives at Keighley Reference Library for her English and history degree at Leeds Metropolitan University.

"The lane, which was used for centuries, was stolen away from the people of Keighley because Henry Butterfield didn't want to see the working classes walking past his home," she said.

"He had been trying for a number of years to get it closed and had even built embankments to hide it."

To get the closure proposal through Parliament, the lane was described as crooked, tortuous and little-used when, in fact, it was relatively straight and was a major route in the area.

Victoria Park was opened in 1893, paid for by public subscription.

It was the last of the three parks to be opened. The first was Devonshire Park, in 1888, donated by the Duke of Devonshire, followed by Lund Park in 1891.

Mrs Macgill's dissertation - Leisure, Pleasure and Reform: The Emergence of Three Public Parks in Keighley - reveals how all three were established with a social motive to improve the great unwashed.

They were designed to encourage the working classes to give up drinking and fighting in the town centre and enjoy the fresh air and fresh water in the park.

"The reform element was about surveillance. It enabled the middle classes to keep an eye on the working classes and also gave them a chance to parade their own status," she said.

"The promenade in Devonshire Park was exactly for that, so people could be surveyed.

"Drinking fountains were provided by the Temperance Society which thought they would help overcome the drinking problems in the town."

There were strict rules about keeping off the grass, no swearing, drinking or gambling was allowed and at first dogs were barred and there were separate areas for men and women.

Bathing in the ornamental pools was barred after some locals, who had no baths in their homes, were caught indulging.

Mrs Macgill's dissertation is now part of the archives at Keighley Reference Library and in Cliffe Castle.

She is now preparing to complete her MA on the life of Henry Isaac Butterfield.

The Butterfield family was immensely wealthy, their fortune founded on the textile trade. Henry's father, Isaac, was the first to introduce power looms into the town in 1833.

Cliffe Castle was bought for Keighley Town Council by Sir Bracewell Smith, a former Lord Mayor of London, for £18,000, and became the town museum.