MEN OF Worth research has revealed the location of a second munitions factory in Keighley during the First World War.

Leading light Andy Wade found a photograph of the factory hidden in military records at Keighley Library.

He walked the streets of Keighley’s industrial heartland to check whether the black-and-white image matched a building still in existence.

Despite changes made in the intervening century, Mr Wade eventually pinpointed the building as the present Dalton Lane premises of successful engineering and welding firm Acetarc.

The company is itself involved in military work, only recently building two huge foundry ladles to pour molten metal to make propellers for US Navy ships.

Andy Wade is one of the founders of the Men of Worth Project, whose volunteers research the stories of Keighley people who bought in the world wars.

His interest was piqued by a recent Keighley News story about the search for the exact location of the National Shell Factory in the Dalton Lane area.

Keighley Local History Society, which led the quest, found three people separately identified the location – from an old photograph – as Old Dalton Lane.

Mr Wade knew there was a second National Shell Factory premises in Keighley, after finding a photograph in Keighley Library’s archive BK34.

He said: “The photograph is from the 6th Battalion West Riding Regiment adjutant’s album from the Great War. I’m not sure why this particular photograph is in this album.”

“The building was built in 1911 and there's a round stone date plaque on the front.

“They are obviously the same building although someone has taken the chimney stack down, widened the main loading doorway and lost one of the windows and had to move the entrance door across.

“The presence of the stone date plaque though, proves beyond any doubt that this is the same building but a check of the stone coursing and other features on the photographs backs this up.”

Acetarc, a family company, has been in the building since 1977.

In June, the company revealed it had completed a $450,000 contract to build the two giant ladles, which weigh 15 metric tons and can pour up to 60 tons of molten metal.

Acetarc, which was founded in 1967 and employs more than 20 people, has also helped reconstruct locomotives for the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.