ONE of Keighley’s most regrettable dates is March 4, 1962, when its Mechanics’ Institute was gutted by fire. Opened in 1870, it was arguably the town’s most impressive building, its clock tower a focal point.

In the small hours of that Sunday morning, after a Saturday-night dance, the flames shot 300 feet into the sky as 75 firemen battled the blaze. Bitter cold froze water from their hoses, yet the heat cracked a shop window on the opposite side of North Street. The burnt-out shell would not be demolished until 1967, together – sadly – with the still-intact tower.

Allan Hargreaves, long-serving Keighley News photographer, is said to have considered this his best-ever picture.