THIS crowd gathered below Stanbury on a glorious August day in 1925 to witness the official inauguration of the Sladen Valley Waterworks which, because of its location astride the Sladen Beck and near the site of Lower Laithe Farm, is also known as Lower Laithe Reservoir.

Construction, interrupted by World War One, took more than a decade and cost more than £500,000, an enormous sum in 1925.

Upwards of 8,000 attended the event, including hundreds watching from the valley slopes and moors above. Local dignitaries ceremonially turned a variety of valves. Alderman W A Brigg, chairman of the Waterworks Committee since 1915, connected the reservoir to the filter basin, while Keighley Mayor Robert Calverley connected the filter tank with the clear water basin.

This photograph was supplied in 2012 by Mr Ian Brierley, of Bridgehouse Lane, Haworth.