Repointing in Keighley

Keighley, Haworth, Oxenhope and Oakworth are stone — Airedale gritstone terraces and mill housing in the town, weavers' cottages up the Worth Valley — all in lime, and Haworth is one of the most-visited conservation areas in the north. The pointing there has to be lime, hand-finished and matched to the original.

Cement on the Worth Valley stone has caused the usual damage and removing it by hand is most of the job. Keighley is exposed on the Pennine side and chimneys and west gables go first. Fifty-five minutes from Rochdale; a lime job up here is a week's work, so we book it as one.