Real-ale enthusiasts are staging a pub crawl in Keighley on Tuesday to toast a brewery baron's birthday.

Members of the Campaign for Real Ale's Keighley and Bradford branches plan to visit all nine Timothy Taylor town-based pubs.

The event is to mark the anniversary of the brewery founder's birth in 1826.

And it coincides with the opening at London Olympia of the Great British Beer Festival, a celebration of ales produced by independent UK breweries.

Bingley-born Timothy Taylor established the brewery in 1858, and it has occupied its present site at Knowle Spring, Keighley, for all but the first five years of its existence.

He was joined in the business by sons Percy and Robert Henry, who continued as partners after Mr Taylor's death in 1898.

A CAMRA spokesman said: "Timothy Taylor & Co Ltd is unique in West Yorkshire as it is the only independent family brewer established in the area during the Victorian age which has survived until today.

"We wish to make the public of Keighley and district aware of what a precious asset Timothy Taylor & Co Ltd is, and how lucky people are to have outlets selling the company's championship winning beers on their doorsteps.

"Recent happenings in the brewing industry make the significance of our event more poignant. Only last week a company -- founded in 1779 -- at Henley on Thames, announced it is to close its brewery at the end of this year with a loss of 35 jobs.

"And Hertford-based brewery McMullen, a business charting its history back to 1827, appears likely to be sold shortly."

Timothy Taylor's has supported Tuesday's event by donating two cases of beer to be raffled for CAMRA funds.