The History of Laurel Mount

In June 1885, Keighley worsted spinner Ira Ickringill gained planning approval for a "Residence off Belgrave Road". Its substantial ground-floor plan reveals a porch, vestibule, dining room, drawing-room, breakfast-room, hall, nursery, kitchen, lobby, lavatory, a garden entrance and a scullery.

In the basement were both wine and beer cellars, a coal cellar, wash kitchen, heating apparatus, a larder and another lobby.

The first floor had seven bedrooms, a landing and passage, a bathroom and lavatory, a servants' bedroom and yet another lobby. A carriage drive swept up to the front entrance, whilst a yard, washhouse, tool-house and ash-place lay behind.

The architect was William Hampden Sugden, whose practice was to become responsible for such prestigious buildings as the Keighley Cycling club in Cavendish Street, Morecambe Tower and the Keighley Hall at Poix-du-Nord in France. Builder and contractor was William Holmes, who managed to double as a grocer and beer seller in Eagle Street.

The name of this "Queen Anne house" - Laurel Mount - hints at the later Victorian flavour of this still rural outskirt of the town. Its period details included oak panelling, tiled fireplaces, and stained glass figures of "Painting" and "Sculpture" in the tall staircase windows.

The 1891 Census illustrates the need for a nursery at Laurel Mount. Ira Ickringill was then aged 55, his second wife 41.

Nine children ranged from 29 years to four months old, including sons aged seven and four and a two year old daughter. Two unmarried female servants lived in, and

gardener Fred Rothera and his family occupied Laurel Mount Cottage.

Moving into Laurel Mount from his former modest home in Park Terrace, near Eastwood Mills, represented a big step up the social scale for Ira Ickringil.

Born in humble circumstances, he and his brother and partner James were in process of building a worsted empire. Expanding from Eastwood into Walk and Dalton Mills, they formed a limited liability company in 1887 and took over Legrams Mills at Bradford in1896. "At one period" states James's biography "they had 70,000 spindles running, employed between 1,500 and 2,000 hands, and they had the reputation of being the largest worsted spinners in the world". Ira, the more socially flamboyant, was three times mayor of Keighley from 1890 to 1893.