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From ‘Voices of the Countryside’
"It was in The Washburn Valley mills, Robert Collyer spent the early part of his working life. His parents moved from Keighley to the valley where his father was blacksmith to the mill. Later, young Robert moved to Ilkley and was apprenticed to John ( Jackie ) Birch who's blacksmith's shop stood on the sight now occupied by The Central Fruit Stores (as was), on Leeds Road."
Over the hill
Around a bend
Into the valley
Of old West End.Into a valley of
Hardship and commerce
Of clog soled children
From London's East End.These were the mills
Satanic and dirty,
Where only the strong
Lived past twenty.But where are you now
The mills are all gone,
Your cottages flattened
And under the plough.Your church by the Washburn
So quiet and serene
Where Halcyon played
With fish in the stream.Where have you gone to
My solitary valley?You've gone into history
So Man's thirst may be slaked,
You've gone 'neath the waters
Of Thruscross lake.
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