Historic maps showing how Keighley and the whole of the Bradford district developed from Victorian times to the 1950s are now available free online.

The detailed six-inch-to-a mile Ordnance Survey maps show road and rail networks, buildings and streets, and smaller things like postboxes and mile posts.

They are available on the website of the National Library of Scotland – www.nls.uk – as a result of an extensive programme that has digitised historic maps across the UK.

Chris Fleet, senior map curator at NLS, said: “These new maps cover all of England and Wales and are immensely valuable for local and family history.

“People can search for the street their grandparents lived in or see how 19th century farmland has turned into today’s suburbs.”

Mary Twentyman, a local history enthusiast, said: “I think it is good, but I worry about people who have been selling such maps commercially. I can understand it must be very frustrating for them.”

Mrs Twentyman said her preference was to have a map actually in front of her rather than on a screen.