THIS atmospheric view of a laden barge on a wintry Leeds and Liverpool Canal was taken from the Bar Lane bridge, probably in the 1920s.

The Riddlesden Memorial Institute appears on the right, but the murky hill beyond seems almost devoid of houses.

The Bingley to Skipton stretch of the canal had opened in 1773, celebrated with “bonfires, illuminations, and other demonstrations of joy”, the ringing of church bells and the sale at half-price of the first two boat-loads of coal.

By 1819, however, the mile separating Keighley from its nearest wharves at Stockbridge prompted plans for a branch from Utley into a central basin.

This came to nothing, but suggested a striking environmental might-have-been: “To pass the River Aire at or near Utley,” the planners warned, “it will be necessary to build an aqueduct of twelve arches over the river, besides two smaller ones for roadways”.