A crucial part of town’s civic pride

So, the wheels of local government roll on inexorably. Decisions about an important part of central Keighley are made in Bradford. And where are differences of opinion discussed in public? In Bradford, of course.

No wonder many people form the impression that any voicing of opposition will be ignored; so why bother?

The Mechanics’ Institute and the adjoining Boys Grammar School were a crucial component of this town’s sense of civic pride, not least its vigorous contribution to a national movement for general education – education for all.

The Institute was opened in 1870, the same year as the Education Act, which led to the proliferation of so many board schools up and down the country. They were often very well designed and built. Many of the best of them are, or were, in this area because they were constructed using good quality sandstone.

My own primary education was in Riddlesden. I now live in East Morton, where there was a very similar looking school. Each of these lovely and perfectly serviceable buildings were demolished with unseemly haste, at about the same time.

That is what will happen to the older buildings opposite your much-lauded Carnegie Library, another testament to Keighley’s reference to the history of national education in the 19th century, and since. Have we learned nothing?

Let me throw down the gauntlet: there is not an architect alive who could design a building with the qualities of the old Boys’ Grammar School; not for £19 million, nor for £99 million. Neither would it be compatible with the surrounding area.

CHRISTOPHER ACKROYD

Bethel Street

East Morton