THIS view of the former Keighley Mechanics’ Institute, occupying the corner of North Street and Cavendish Street, can be dated to February or March 1947 during our worst winter of the century. Affected by the weather, the clock on the tower remained at 5.30 for two months, as seen here.

That winter didn’t really get into its stride until the beginning of February, when the first of many blizzards “raged for hours” and was reported in a style of prosaic understatement which now makes thought-provoking reading. Bus drivers “came through the ordeal with great credit, but not without considerable damage to buses”. An early-morning passenger train for Bradford “became embedded in a drift between Thornton and Queensbury”.

The public, acclimatised to the difficulties of the Second World War, soldiered on. Householders queued with handcarts, sledges and old prams for a daily issue of coke, farmers delivered milk on horse-drawn sledges, and tractors with spiked wheels dug up frozen snow on roads resembling “a huge domestic rubbing-board”. The National Fire Service knocked dangerous icicles off public buildings.

It was the end of March before life returned towards normal, but there was a final snowfall that April during the worst Easter for many years.