THE Crown Hotel in Church Green was bought by Keighley Corporation in 1884 and demolished when the road was widened five years later.

The tall drinking fountain on the extreme left was intended as a means of innocently quenching the thirst of some who might otherwise have been tempted by the plentiful hostelries of this locality!

The fountain, which occupied the approximate site of Keighley’s former stocks, had been presented to the town in 1869 by Miss Butterfield of Cliffe Hall, the predecessor of Cliffe Castle.

Sarah Hannah Butterfield, a staunch worshipper at Temple Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, was a familiar figure out horse riding, accompanied by a favourite greyhound called Chloe. She died, aged 62, at Palermo in 1871, where she had accompanied her brother and nephew, who were mountaineering in Sicily.

The fountain was transferred in 1888 into the new Devonshire Park, where it can still be seen, although no longer dispensing water!