ONE of the great between-the-wars ideals was the clearance of town centre slums and the rehousing of their residents in new suburban council estates.

This is Guard House under construction, where it was thought the lucky tenants would be able to bask in “the maximum amount of sunshine”.

This was a rather optimistic claim. An inquiry inspector, coming to view the relevant landscape in 1923, had refused even to get out of his taxi, while corporation officials in 1925 had examined the site “in very heavy rain”.

However, Keighley’s first 136 council homes were built at Guard House in 1928 on land purchased from the Brigg family. Other estates followed at Broomhill, Highfield and Woodhouse.

Council houses stood 12 to the acre, each with a garden. By way of comparison, the old King Street Club-Houses, demolished in 1937, had crammed 66 to the acre.

In areas like Westgate and Eastwood Square, the death rate had been nearly double that of the town as a whole.

Out of one block of 107 dwellings, 93 had been back-to-back and 22 infested with bugs.