DURING the demolition of Keighley’s Mantra Mills in 1931, an enterprising photographer climbed up to record this bird’s-eye view along South Street – showing the impending clearance area of Westgate in the background.
In the foreground are examples of mid-Victorian residential streets including Aireworth Street, where the last home was demolished in 1973.
* Sir Swire Smith, the Keighley ‘master spinner’ who devoted so much of his energies in the cause of education, took over as MP in 1915 when his predecessor created a vacancy by being made Lord Chancellor.
Sir Swire was then aged 73, and had no experience of national politics – to begin with in parliament he was to be seen sitting casually in Labour and Conservative seats!
He died in 1918, aged 76.
* The final photo shows what came to be known as Baptist Square. It illustrates the earlier years of the baptists in Keighley, with their Turkey Street Chapel on the right of the picture and their Sunday School on the left. The buildings were superseded in 1865 by the Albert Street Chapel and Sunday School.
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