FAMILIES and history buffs went loco for this year’s bumper National Heritage Days in Keighley.

Ingrow Loco Museum and Workshop recorded its best-ever attendance for the annual event last weekend.

The ‘engine shed’ visitor attraction, run by the Bahamas Locomotive Society, was just one of several buildings across the town that laid on special activities for the public.

Ingrow Loco teamed up with Cliffe Castle Museum and East Riddlesden Hall for the first time to promote their attractions jointly.

Over at Keighley Library on Saturday several history groups had information stands, while there was also live music and talks about Keighley’s rock scene in the 1950s and 1960s.

In the nearby Civic Centre, which is Keighley’s former police station and magistrate’s court, visitors learned about the history of policing and justice in the town and shown around the old cells.

Exhibits included old police uniforms, communications equipment and the Black Maria Victorian police carriage.

Over in Keighley Town Hall visitors could see the council chamber used by Keighley and Bradford councils, as well as meet the current town mayor Councillor Mohammed Nazam.

The walls of the chamber show the mayors and dignitaries from the 1800s to the present day.

Cllr Luke Maunsell, chairman of Keighley Town Council’s Events and Leisure Committee, said: “Residents and visitors alike took up the opportunity to visit parts of our historic buildings which are not normally open to the public.”

Friday was a launch day for the partnership between Bradford Council’s Cliffe Castle Museum, the National Trust’s East Riddlesden Hall and the volunteer-run Ingrow Loco.

Staff and volunteers from all three sites took a vintage bus ride to sample each others’ locations on launch day, as a ‘dry run’ before offering a similar service to the public next year.

They were joined by Keighley MP John Grogan and town mayor Mohammed Nazam.

Ingrow Loco spokesman Keith Whitmore said. “Over the weekend we had lots of visitors able to access a learning coach for the first time.

“It’s a fully-fledged classroom that tells the story of Ingrow and its branch lines as well as a story of animals on the railway.”

Visitors to Ingrow Loco, on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, were given a rare chance to visit the museum’s workshop where volunteers restore historic locomotives, and see the historic Coal Tank No 1054 locomotive up close.

Cliffe Castle provided a talk about the Cottingley Fairies, while East Riddlesden Hall offered family activities.