SPRINGFIELD Mill, at the bottom of Oakworth Road, provides the only modern point of reference for this view up the North Beck during the Westgate slum clearance scheme of the mid-1930s. The chimney beyond on the right belonged to Becks Mill.
This closely-packed residential area, the heart of the old town, had deteriorated over the generations. “If individual houses were considered,” reported the Keighley Medical Officer of Health, “it was notorious that on some no direct ray of sunlight had fallen since the houses were built a hundred years ago.”
On demolition, displaced residents were rehoused on new council estates. By 1932 Keighley Corporation had built more than 400 council houses at Broomhill, Highfield and Guard House, the latter ideally sited to enjoy “the maximum amount of sunshine”.
The beck seen here was to vanish under a culvert and reappear on the opposite side of Bridge Street.
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