THE steady demise of Keighley’s old mills has already blunted our memories of the huge impact they made on our environment.

Seen here in its heyday from the bottom of Haincliffe Road is the Grove Mills of Robert Clough (Keighley) Ltd, worsted spinners and manufacturers.

In 1947 my class of Holycroft School ten-year-olds were treated to a conducted tour of Grove Mills – then we spent the next term on a comprehensive project on wool!

“A few firms carry the wool from the raw state to the finished product,” I wrote, “eg Clough’s Mill at Ingrow.” I filled an exercise-book with drawings and descriptions of the various processes, from wool sorting to burling (“after weaving, small knots and broken threads are carefully mended”).

That immediate post-war period was reflected in a talk we had on wool: “Pinned to a blackboard was a map of the world. The British Commonwealth was coloured in red, and the rest of the world was in yellow.”

This is another photograph from Kevin Seaton’s collection.