12 people including soldiers and members of their families, died in the incident, which the media claimed to be the work of the IRA.
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On 4 February 1974, the village and surrounding area gathered widespread national attention, when there was a coach bomb, on the M62 motorway which passes the boundary of the village.
Material excavated elsewhere on the line of the motorway, clay from cuttings between Lofthouse and Gildersome, and 3.4 million cubic metres from the Deanhead excavations was used to build the dam's embankment which is 625 metres in length and 63.1 metres above the original valley floor.
Apart from the town of Morley, it included Churwell (a separate Local Government District until 1891), East Ardsley (or Ardsley East), West Ardsley, Drighlington and Gildersome (urban districts absorbed in 1937).
With the demise of the Gildersome works the company became a sales and service organisation for construction plant and machinery e.g. Ford, Barford, Kubota.