Above: The Memorial Gardens area, flanked on the left by the Library and to the right by the Wesley Place car park, is in fascinating contrast to how Bolton Road End looked in times past. The Memorial Gardens were built in 1956.

Above: This part of the site features in the centre foreground the old Urban District Council depot, where previously there had been Pollard's sweet factory. In the bottom right corner is the gable end of the former  fire station. The spire of the present-day Catholic church can be seen in the background, with the view looking across to Daisy Hill before Craven Drive was built. The Catholic Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church was previously the Wesleyan Methodist Church. The tall building at the back on the extreme right is the Primitive Methodist Church (recently demolished to make way for the new Methodist building), where the Wesleyans and Bethesdas (from Keighley Road) moved on uniting in 1956.

Above: The area of  Bolton Road End opposite the junction with Briggate was dominated by Highfield Farm, which, built in the late 1600s, for more than 200 years was the Talbot Inn. These buildings were to the left of the sweet factory and the later depot shown in the preceding photograph. Both pictures are by courtesy of Silsden Camera Club.

Above and below: The oldest part of the present-day library buildings goes back to 1852 when the Wesleyan Methodists opened a combined Sunday School and day school. A schoolmaster's house and new classroom were built in 1858. The day school continued until 1914 when Hothfield Street school opened.  

The picture below, taken in the 1950s, shows on the right the two buildings at the intersection of which  the library entrance was built. The church-style window by the red door on the far left of the picture above can be seen in the picture below, on the right of the single-storey Sunday School premises, which, apart from  that section, have been demolished.