THIS Keighley view – probably photographed in the 1870s – suggests the smoky atmosphere of the town’s industrial heyday.

This was the period when Keighley boasted “one tenth of the mills, nearly one-eighth of the spindles and nearly one-twelfth of the looms employed in the worsted trade throughout the United Kingdom”.

According to an 1879 petition applying for borough status, Keighley nearly monopolised “the trade of making worsted spinning machinery”, producing looms, lathes and machine tools. The town manufactured 64,000 washing and wringing machines and 10,000 sewing machines in a single year.

Keighley iron founders offered “castings of every description”. JB Beadman and Co built railway wagons, Sagar and Broughton made cart and wagon covers, Mitchell Brothers saddles, horse cloths and “ladies’ and gentlemen’s waterproofs”. Wire worker Bethel Rhodes produced a plethora of aviaries, fenders, riddles and sieves, window-guards and rat-traps. Alfred Lord, school furniture maker, doubled as an undertaker.

Other manufactures included files, bobbins, brushes, soap, mattresses and nuts, bolts and screws.