THIS view from Wheathead Lane in the 1930s is a reminder of how far Keighley’s residential suburbs have spread in the last 80 years – to stand at this point now is to be surrounded by houses with their attendant gardens, garages and parked cars.
Spring Well Cottages, seen here on the right in rural isolation, are now in the middle of an estate linking Fell Lane with Exley Head. Opposite them, Wheathead Drive now runs to the left from a much-widened Wheathead Lane, while Ridgeway Mount now climbs to the right beyond the cottages.
When this photograph was taken, fields still stretched all the way to Mannville Grove, Mannville Street and Mannville Walk, the ends of which are prominent in the distance about the middle of the view. The Fell Lane County Hospital (later St John’s) appears towards the left.
At least 20 mill chimneys can be counted in Keighley proper. The picture was probably taken during Parish Feast week so as to avoid the pall of smoke which normally hung over the town.
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