COULD I ask Mr Graham Mitchell to allow me a little poetic licence for my letter – Park action required (Keighley News, December 28)?

Might I remind him that the letter was not so much about the amazing Sir Isaac Holden, rather about the anti-social problems besetting Oakworth Park currently, and therefore the village as a whole?

I was using the historical background in order to underline the importance of the place now, not then.

In Mr Mitchell’s terms, I probably was misusing historical fact – I beg his pardon for overstepping his priorities of historical veracity.

He appears to be sufficiently well-read about the subject, to know that very few innovations in textile machinery from the 18th century onwards could, strictly speaking, warrant the term ‘invention’. They were usually adaptations of what had existed before - improvements.

Holden was a superb adapter – it was the source of his litigious dispute with Lister, which could be described as a lifelong jealousy of the underling’s superior engineering skills.

I bow to Mr Mitchell’s grasp of the history of the Worth Valley Railway, but I continue to be convinced that it would not be what it was but for Holden’s involvement.

As I understand it, he began to build his Italianate palace in Oakworth before the railway line was commenced.

I doubt he would have done so without some fore-knowledge, showing the same practical prescience that caused him to install telegraph and telephone systems, electric lighting etc in his greenhouses years before anyone else. This, in Oakworth. Amazing.

The current evening inhabitants of the warren of caves at Oakworth Park, the young citizens who throw rocks at passing cars, should be given a stark choice. Either sign-up for a course at the (former) Technical College and learn about the enlightened ideas of Sir Isaac Holden, or spend some time sitting in the stocks at the top of Haworth Main Street and have good citizens throw things at you; there to contemplate the difference in cultures.

CHRISTOPHER ACKROYD Bethel Street East Morton