THIS imaginative view of Church Green in about 1850 formed one in a series of six Keighley postcards issued a century or so ago, reproduced from watercolours by Edwin Riby.

A member of Keighley Art Club, Edwin Riby ran a picture-framing business in Lawkholme Crescent, where his shop had a gallery above for exhibitions, becoming a magnet for local artists.

He died suddenly of a heart condition, aged 61, in 1927 while getting off a trolley-car.

Here we see the new parish church by the notable Leeds architect RD Chantrell, flanked by inns that provided broth and dumplings to worshippers unable to get home between morning and afternoon services.

The Market Cross, representing Keighley’s Market Charter of 1305, stood in reality at the North Street end of Church Green, but the stocks are shown in their traditional place near the church gates.

The stocks were primarily used to punish gamblers and drunkards.

Being found guilty of drunken and disorderly conduct could lead to sitting for six hours in the stocks, albeit there was an option of a five-shilling fine. The miscreant was allowed to thaw out in front of a pub fire halfway through the sentence in cold weather,!