A WARTIME map identifying Keighley bombing targets for the Luftwaffe has been unearthed.

Key locations across the town are marked – including mills, factories, sewage works, quarries, railway stations and bridges.

The Ordnance Survey map, overprinted in German, has a heading stating it is based on documentary evidence available in April, 1942.

Former Keighley man Paul Jackson first came across the document at an antiques fair in the late 1970s, but it has remained stored away until now.

"I was visiting friends in the south when I came across a collection of around half-a-dozen similar maps," he said.

"They were mainly of the south but as soon as I saw the one of Keighley I had to have it to take back home."

He put it in a box and forgot about it, until the map resurfaced during a clear out.

"Having looked at it again I'm not sure whether the map was created as part of an invasion plan or if it would have been used as intelligence for bombing raids," said Mr Jackson, who now lives near Settle.

Local historian Ian Dewhirst, who compiles the hugely popular Memory Lane column for the Keighley News, confirms the map was produced in preparation for bombing raids.

He added that two maps, covering both north and south Keighley, were also brought back to the town by a returning soldier after the war.

They had been recovered in Berlin.

Those maps are now in the archives at the Local Studies Library.

Mr Dewhirst said: "Mercifully the Luftwaffe never did bomb Keighley but it is sobering to think that had they, they would have known where their targets lay.

"The map is extremely detailed and a note referring to 'edition number two' suggests there had been an earlier version.

"On closer inspection you can see that the Germans were not quite up to date with some of their information, but nevertheless they were very thorough.

"They even distinguish between textiles, light and heavy engineering, and smaller back-street works are marked-up too.

"The bus depot is identified rather than the bus station, because that's where the vehicles would be kept at night when a raid took place.

"Markings are in red, purple and black to indicate points of interest."

Main reservoirs are outside the boundaries of the map, but smaller sources of water supply are pinpointed.

Hospital buildings are also marked, but theoretically so as they would be avoided during a raid.

"Thankfully Keighley was never put to the test," added Mr Dewhirst.

Mr Jackson said he would be happy to donate his map to a museum or war memorabilia society.