HIGH above Keighley, Redcar Tarn is seen here a century or more ago.
The late Keith Spencer, of Stanbury, has left a reminiscence of his wartime boyhood when he and his cousin used to visit the tarn, even trying to swim in it, though they “would come out covered in algae and mud”.
He recalled a summer day about 1942 when they laid on their stomachs poking into the tarn’s “seething amount of wildlife” and spotted the fins of three mortar bombs stuck into a hole in the bank.
As the son of a special constable, young Keith responsibly went straight to Laycock to tell ‘Bobby’ Taylor.
The policeman’s response would have seemed highly inappropriate nowadays – he carried the bombs down to Keighley Police Station, accompanied by the two boys. It was a hot day, and he kept stopping to adjust his cape on his shoulder, eventually handing the bombs to the two boys to carry, with the injunction: “For God’s sake, don’t drop ‘em!” They turned out to be “very much alive”.
During the Second World War, parts of the Keighley area were out of bounds and used for army training.
The police went into local schools to warn children not to meddle with anything they might find.
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