Robin Longbottom looks at how mill chimneys once dominated Keighley’s townscape

IN the 1960s, the Keighley townscape was dominated by a multitude of mill chimneys.

However, parliamentary clean air acts were introduced in 1956 and 1968 to control pollution and prevent the smog that had hung over towns for more than a century. The acts brought the age of the mill chimney to an end, and most have since been demolished.

The chimneys were built for two purposes. The first was to improve the draught for the combustion of fuel and the second was to disperse the noxious fumes and smoke into the atmosphere.

The earliest mill chimney recorded in Keighley was built in the 1780s at Low Mill. The boiler that it served produced steam for a beam engine that was used to pump spent water from the mill wheel back into the mill pond. However, this practice was soon abandoned in favour of using engines to power the machinery. Although there is no illustration of this chimney, it was said to have been very bulky and no higher than the mill.

It may not have been dissimilar to the chimney at Goit Stock Mill in Cullingworth. This still survives on the hillside above the site of the mill and has a stocky, rectangular base with a platform surmounted by a narrower upper section. It is probably the earliest surviving mill chimney in the area.

The construction of early chimneys was not regulated and there are many records of them collapsing, sometimes with devastating consequences. Low Bridge Mill, built in about 1806, was said to have been the first in Keighley to be powered solely by steam. In January, 1839, during gale force winds, the chimney was blown down, destroying the engine house and much of the building. The mill was rebuilt, together with a new round chimney supported by a substantial square base.

Early chimneys were small in comparison with ones built after 1850 when regulations required them to have a minimum height of 90 feet. These much larger structures were built from scaffolding on the inside, with materials often hoisted up by temporary steam engines located close to the base. Two or three masons worked from a platform that was raised as additional layers were added. These chimneys had an internal diameter of eight to 12 feet, and were double skinned with a brick lining and stone cladding. Construction was usually at a rate of three or four feet a day and the crowns were finished with coping stones secured to each other by copper cramps set in lead.

A small number of chimneys remain today, including the one at Low Bridge Mill which is noted for its faces and the protruding head of a man wearing a bowler-style hat; other heads have been recorded on chimneys at Ingrow and Oakworth. Perhaps the finest chimney to survive is the one at Ebor Mill near Haworth. It was built in the 1870s by two Oakworth stone masons, John Tuley and William Sharp. It rises to a height of over 200 feet and is octangular with an elaborate crown.

Another notable chimney that survives is the one at Dalton Mill. It is a round chimney built in 1872 and is completely encased in a square tower with viewing platforms near the top. Originally the chimney extended above the tower and was surmounted by an open cast iron ‘cupola’.

Demolishing chimneys in the town was problematical. In some cases, such as the Corn Mill chimney on Damside, there was sufficient space for them to be felled. However, others had to be taken down by hand. Fleece Mill chimney, off East Parade, was the highest in Keighley and was ascended by steeplejacks who dropped the stones into the shaft from where they were cleared through an opening at the bottom.