The year 1923 saw the closure of an Ingrow Parish Church Men’s Institute, which had been opened in 1909 and offered such facilities as a large hall, a reading room, a games room and a billiard room equipped with the two tables seen here.

In 1912 some of its members formed this pierrot troupe.

They were probably encouraged by the Reverend William Thompson Elliott, who had been inducted as vicar at Ingrow St John’s that same year, and who was also chaplain to the Keighley branch of the Actors’ Church Union, in which capacity he held special services for the theatrical profession.

Tall, broad-shouldered, humorous and outspoken, the Rev W T Elliott played with the Ingrow Cricket Club and was known, during a subsequent incumbency at Leeds, as “the vicar with the broad smile”.

He became Canon and Sub-Dean of Liverpool Cathedral, and at the time of his death in 1940 was Canon Residentiary of Westminster.