Melodrama formed a large slice of the theatre’s earlier repertoire.

The Black Flag portrayed “life at Portland convict establishment”, and featured “an escape from that penal settlement, with the hoisting of a black flag”.

Titles like A Woman’s Wrongs, False Lights, Passion’s Slave and Bells Of Fate told audiences what to expect. Grip of Iron proved so popular it played on three successive years.

Here is the photo on an advertisement for The Village Blacksmith in 1906. Our hero – presumably the blacksmith – is having a Great Wrestling Match against a character whose sinister mask identifies him as the villain.

The photograph has kindly been supplied by Kevin Seaton, of Shann Lane in Keighley.