A NEW website has been launched which enables people to explore the district’s rich film history – and even take a tour of locations.

The Bradford Film Heritage site acts as a guide to the area’s historic associations with top movies.

It also spotlights leading TV productions which have used buildings and sites across the district.

The Keighley area has figured strongly for years on the radar of film and TV producers and location scouts.

Haworth of course has provided the setting for many Bronte-related productions.

Notable amongst them in recent times was the highly-acclaimed 2016 BBC drama To Walk Invisible, about the three legendary literary sisters and their brother Branwell.

The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway (K&WVR) will forever be associated with the classic 1970 movie version of Edith Nesbit’s timeless story, The Railway Children.

The five-mile line – where the film was shot – was catapulted to international fame, and still attracts visitors from across the globe thanks to the production.

Since then the railway has featured in countless other films and TV programmes, from Yanks to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

And other major productions shot on the K&WVR and at Dalton Mills – also a popular venue for film and programme makers – include Gunpowder, The Limehouse Golem, The Great Train Robbery, Peaky Blinders, Testament of Youth, Lies we Tell and Swallows and Amazons.

Latest star to visit town was Keira Knightley, who was on the K&WVR last month as part of filming for a major new political thriller, Official Secrets.

K&WVR filming liaison officer Roger France said: “Unusually for us this film is set in 2003 – we are more used to being involved in period dramas with Victorian or Edwardian backdrops.

“As this was much more contemporary it was challenging for us to provide what was wanted, but I think the film’s director was extremely happy with what we were able to do, and the filming went very well.

“Most of the activity was at Keighley Station – which was marked out as being Cheltenham Spa station for the day – though the shooting involved the whole line.

“Official Secrets is being partly funded by Screen Yorkshire, and having part of it made here means it will have contributed to the local economy.”

Official Secrets – the cast of which also includes Ralph Fiennes, Indira Varma and Tamsin Greig – tells the true story of British Intelligence whistle-blower Katharine Gun who, during the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, leaked a top secret National Security Agency memo exposing a joint US-UK illegal spying operation against members of the UN Security Council.

The new heritage website includes a map showing where scores of productions were filmed, facts about the films and TV shows and the history of the locations.

There is also a section carrying a timeline of filming in Bradford district dating back to the 1890s.

An original version of the website was developed in 2013 by Bradford City of Film, in partnership with Titus Salt School and the Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots programme.

The project was supported by Bradford Industrial Museum, Bradford Libraries, the National Science and Media Museum, Keighley News sister paper the Telegraph & Argus, the University of Bradford Working Academy and the Yorkshire Film Archive.

But because of the high number of productions filmed since then, the decision was made to give the website a total overhaul, as well as updating the technology.

The micro site works on traditional computers as well as mobile devices and tablets.

The team at Bradford City of Film included University of Bradford graduates Rachel Bottomley and Vasiliki Delimpasi, working alongside local researcher, Alice Lassey.

In addition to the details of film and TV locations used in the district, there are links to other sources of information about the productions – including the Internet Movie Data Base, which details casts, production crews, personnel and fictional character biographies, plot summaries, trivia and fan reviews and ratings.

There is also a blog section, which looks behind the scenes of some of the productions and how they came to the Bradford district in the first place. In the initial blog the team behind the site looks at Peaky Blinders.

David Wilson, director of Bradford UNESCO City of Film, said: “This was definitely a team effort and we are really pleased with the results.

“Even though it’s my job to know much of this heritage, it never ceases to amaze me how much film and TV production has taken place and continues to take place in Bradford.

“This is something of real interest to residents and visitors alike.

“I hope it also gives people a sense of civic pride and helps them appreciate why Bradford truly deserves the title of UNESCO City of Film.”

The website can be found at bradfordfilmheritage.com.

Meanwhile, Screen Yorkshire – which champions the region’s film, TV, games and digital industries – has won national recognition.

It has received acclaim in separate reports by the Government and the British Film Institute.

Both documents acknowledge the work undertaken by Screen Yorkshire since 2002 in growing revenues from the screen industries in the region and contributing to increased employment in the sector.

Last year, figures from the Office of National Statistics showed that the growth of Yorkshire and Humber’s film and TV industries had outstripped that of every other region in the UK.

Between 2009 and 2015, an annual turnover of more than £420m was generated across creative businesses in the region.

“Screen Yorkshire – through its Yorkshire Content Fund – was cited as having delivered unprecedented growth in turnover and employment in the screen industries, delivering high-end television and film productions across the region,” said a spokesman.

“The British Film Institute undertook a mapping study which looked at EU funding of the UK screen sectors between 2007-2017.

“The resultant report showed how the funding had enabled the screen sector and the economy to grow, attract investment and generate jobs.”