PHOTOGRAPHED in old age, James Leach (1815-1893) had served in a forerunner of Keighley’s regular police force, prior to the formation of the West Riding Constabulary in 1857.

Between 1848 and 1853 Leach had been a watchman employed by our then local authority, the Keighley Improvement Commissioners. He was one of four “able-bodied” men who patrolled the town at night; although significantly, ale-house keepers could be fined for “harbouring” them during their hours of duty!

A diary kept by Leach at the time presents a vivid impression of the night-life of a growing town, a chronicle of the drunk and disorderly prostitutes, “free fights” and “Irish rows”. He records a character “commonly called Bony Boy” who kept “kicking up a great disturbance” in the Pinfold, and another “caled Mucky Sam” who threw Patrick Waterhouse “over the batlment at Damside a depth of 5 yards and cut and wounded im daingerousley”.