Originally Eastleigh Library and Hall, on Eastleigh Drive, the original branch closed in December 2000.

Relocating to its current home, the red brick built Ardsley and Tingley Branch Library was located at 213A Bradford Road. Strange fact, none of the windows open.

About the area

Across the road is Ambler’s Mill. The firm of Thomas Ambler & Sons Ltd., worsted spinners, was founded in Bradford in 1858.

The factory moved from Bradford to overcome shortages in coal and female labour. The ‘New Mill’ was built between 1912 and 1913, the site chosen for its proximity to a coal supply and plentiful labour. They replicated The Wood Worsted Company’s factory in the USA. The mill went on to become a Country Baskets store.

Ardsley Old Hall on Main Street is a Grade II listed building and the oldest surviving one in the village, stone built in Elizabethan style in 1622 for Robert Shaw. Part of it has been used as a farmhouse for many years and its owners have included the Copleys, Longbottoms and Autys.

Now (2010) it is split into 3 separate dwellings. The houses on the left with front gardens, known as Grand View, have since been demolished. The building next to these once housed the Working Men’s Club and later the Church of Christ. In the background is the New Empire Cinema.

Tingley Hall was also a magnificent 18th century stone mansion. It was demolished in 1967 to make way for the Roundabout – the M62 motorway extension at Tingley.

The owner was Andrew Brown Fraser seen here in an image from the David Atkinson Archive on Leodis.net

Andrew was the manager of Topcliffe Colliery, both coal and ironstone had been mined here until the slump of the 1930s. It was once the largest pit in the district, employing 850 miners.

We are off to the Edwardian Tingley Station now, going to the smaller building with the pointed roof to buy our tickets! The W.M. Potts clock above the rear door is telling us we are a little late.