Robin Longbottom looks at how a pioneering figure from the town stepped-in to save one of its ‘treasures’ for the people

WHEN the Cliffe Castle estate came up for sale in 1949 it was feared that it would be bought by a developer, the house demolished and land turned over for housing.

Therefore, at the end of June, 1949, the Keighley Town Council decided to approach the owner – Marie Louise (Butterfield) Pierrepont, the Countess Manvers – to purchase it.

However, when in October the countess offered the property to Keighley for £18,000, Sir Bracewell Smith – a native of Keighley, now living in London – proposed that he would buy it and give it to the people of the town. The offer was accepted and the transfer was completed in 1950.

Bracewell Smith was born in Keighley in 1884.

His father was a currier, or leather finisher, and worked for Thomas Whitehead & Co in Upper Green. When the firm moved premises to Hermit Hole on Halifax Road in the late 1890s, the Smith family also moved there.

One of four children, Bracewell stayed on at school as a pupil teacher – a student who after the age of 13 helped with teaching and in return received further education from the headteacher.

Following his role as a pupil teacher he then went to Leeds University, where he attained a degree in science in 1908.

Until the outbreak of the First World War he taught science at a school in Pimlico in London, but after leaving the army at the end of the war he invested his money in a small London hotel.

With a flair for business, he set out on a mission to improve the standard of English hotels. He therefore sailed to New York to see how American hotels were run and experience the service that they offered. At that time English hotels were little more than boarding houses, with communal bathrooms and toilets.

In 1925 – with financial backing from Yorkshire businessmen – he bought the Park Lane Hotel, which had stood derelict since the end of the war. He raised £500,000 and within a year transformed it into London's premier hotel, complete with restaurants, hairdressers, shops and with a ballroom said to be “the very finest in London”. He also provided every bedroom with a separate bathroom and a telephone – something previously unheard of and now taken for granted.

During his career he was the managing director of the Park Lane Hotel, a director of the Carlton Hotel, the Ritz Hotel and the Cafe Royale and a shareholder in the Hotel Ritz in Paris. He became mayor of Holburn in 1931, MP for Dulwich in 1932 and Mayor of London in 1947. In 1948 he received a knighthood and baronetcy from King George VI.

In 1952 the Keighley Town Council obtained a structural report on the condition of Cliffe Castle, and it made grim reading.

The house was riddled with dry rot and parts of the fabric were deemed unsafe. It was feared that demolition would be inevitable if urgent steps weren't taken. The cost of repairs to save it from demolition were estimated at £43,870. A copy of the report was sent to Sir Bracewell Smith.

After lengthy discussions, Sir Bracewell stepped in once again and in 1956 gave £100,000 for the renovation of the house and maintenance of the grounds.

One of the towers was demolished and the remaining one reduced in height and the entire top storey of the house, with its Dutch gables, was removed. The rest of the building was gutted, with the exception of the music room and conservatory.

On April 14, 1959, Sir Bracewell Smith – Keighley's very own Dick Whittington – returned to the town to formally open the museum and park that we enjoy today.