A family desperately fought to keep a house together during last Friday's storm.

Adrian Walker heaved on a washing line to stop a window frame flying away into the night at his home in Long Lee.

His pregnant wife, Julie, called 999 after a large part of the wall of their Spring Avenue house fell off.

The family then had to open all the doors and windows to stop wind pressure lifting the roof off.

Glass and rubble filled one of the bedrooms as Adrian and his neighbours held on to the window.

The room was set to become the nursery for Julie and Adrian's baby, which was due this week.

The couple's three-year-old daughter, Emily Grace, sleeps in the adjoining bedroom.

The semi-detached house was built in 1925 and the outer and inner walls are tied together by stone.

Ironically, construction work to strengthen the links between the two walls was due to begin this Wednesday. But last Friday Keighley was hit by strong winds.

Julie, an advertising rep with the Ilkley Gazette, the Keighley News's sister paper, first heard the window smash.

She said: "It was like a bomb going off. The window frame was swinging out into the middle of nowhere.

"My husband and our neighbours, Pat and Terry Snowden, tied it with a washing line and took turns pulling it in.

"It was horrendous holding it but if we let go it could have hit someone or a car.

"We were very lucky. Much of this is horrendous but nobody was hurt."

Once firefighters made the window safe, the Walkers realised the extent of the damage to their wall.

Adrian had to stay in the house overnight with all the doors open in order to avoid high winds causing further damage.

The family's insurers have agreed to pay for the damage and this week arranged for repairs to begin.

Over the weekend, Julie stayed with her parents, Maureen and Keighley Cougars chairman Neil Spencer, and on Monday night the couple returned to their home.

Julie said that due to a difficult pregnancy she had been having weekly scans with doctors discussing whether to induce the baby.

She said: "It's good they gave me another week or we could have had a newborn baby in that room. It's good I didn't go into labour that night."