Rumours abounded about mill dams in the not-too-long-ago.

If you were a young angler, there would be some old hand who would spin yarns about the truly gigantic fish, for which the record book would have to be reprinted, which inhabited such-and-such a dam (usually miles away and guarded by dogs, barbed wire, searchlights, a couple of minefields and a truly choleric gateman).

Other stories concerned the horrid and tragic deaths of people caught in 'undercurrents' while swimming in the dam. Their bodies, usually mangled by some aquatic machinery too terrible to speak of in front of children, were normally found days after the event.

Little wonder then that we - parents and kids alike - looked on the mill dam with both desire and foreboding.

On a hot summer's day their cold water was an attraction - sometimes, but not very often, a fatal one. More children drowned in rumours than ever drowned in a mill dam.

But nobody ever told us about Daniel Illingworth's Whetley Mills in Thornton Road at the end of the 19th century. It sounds like Bradford's answer to the Costa del Sol. Well, Pontin's anyway...

Whetley Mills had five dams. At least one of them was full of carp - 'goldfish' to the employees, who would sit on the windowsills overlooking the dam at lunchtime and share their meagre rations with the fish.

Doubtless more than one of these ended up in batter with a penn'orth of chips when times were hard. Carp had been part of the English diet from the earliest times, muddy-flavoured and bony as they are.

But at teatime the dams came into their own.

Around the damside were changing rooms and the lads and lasses from the mill (on different nights, of course) would nip in and get changed into their swimming gear before plunging into the water from the diving boards which were provided.

It was Illingworth's policy to ensure their younger workers were physically fit (a nicety which many employers ignored) and all new boys and girls were examined by a doctor and were provided with a medical certificate of fitness.

Being fit didn't save you from drowning, so the firm had one dam constructed for beginners, where the water was only three feet deep. Only when they were competent were they allowed into the deeper water.

During the summer, galas were organised drawing competitors from around the country. These included the Three Dams Swim, which involved a run between lengths to complete the course - an early biathlon.

The mill also practised an early form of recycling, with water drawn from the dams to wash wool, and then filtered to 'crack out' the lanolin which Illingworth's then sold.

The residue was turned into cattle cake, and clean water returned to the dams. The water itself was obtained from land drains, so the whole process was ecologically pretty sound - and the whole workforce presumably pretty fit.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.