A KEIGHLEY branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association was formed in 1907 in Cavendish Street meeting rooms supplied by Councillor (later Sir) Robert Clough, then Keighley’s youngest mayor.

It aimed to extend a beneficial influence to about 5,000 Keighley males, aged from 15 to 35, who were thought to have no connection to any church.

Such was its popularity that by 1913 Sandywood House, seen here on the corner of North Street and Alice Street, became home to the Keighley YMCA.

Sandywood House had a varied history, having earlier served as a school and, by 1877, as a gentlemen’s club, fitted with a bar and rooms for smoking, reading, music, billiards, playing cards and conversation, plus a bowling green round the back.

A suggested expansion of the YMCA after the Great War failed to materialise, but Sandywood House was extended, by way of three single-storey shops, to link up with the Picture House of 1913. The Keighley News offices eventually occupied the site.

The photograph was supplied by Kevin Seaton, of Shann Lane, Keighley.