Forty years ago, Hollywood came to Keighley! The climactic finale of the film ‘Yanks’ was filmed at Keighley railway station and the goods yard at the end of Cavendish Street (now Sainsbury’s car park) in the summer of 1978. Filming also took place at Steeton where an entire US Army Base was recreated. The film was directed by John Schlesinger and starred Richard Gere alongside over 800 extras including many recruited from the town. The film is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday 3rd December.

A small album of photographs taken by Lilywhite Ltd. has been added to the History Society’s Flickr page. There is no date on the book but we estimate the photographs were taken in the 1950s.

Corporal Samuel A. Gott was killed in action in 1917 during the First World War, at the age of just 24. He was born in Cross Roads, near Keighley, and was an accomplished craftsman and joiner. His model of a Mansard roof truss won him first prize from the Worshipful Company of Carpenters in 1914. His model is preserved in the Science Museum Group collection. Records relating to Samuel and photographs of his model have been loaded on the History Society’s Flickr page. Our thanks to Andy Wade and the Men of Worth Project for instigating and researching this project.

The first meeting of the Keighley Co-operative Society was held on this day (9th October) in 1860 at the Turkish Bath Rooms. The meeting was chaired by John Farrar Pickles who was a tea dealer on Low Bridge. Illustration from ‘Half a Century of Co-operation in Keighley – 1860-1910’ by Jos. Rhodes (Fellow of the Institute of Journalists and of the British Esperanto Association), published in 1911.

A wonderful example of a recruitment leaflet produced by Hattersley Sons & Co. Ltd. of Haworth has just been uploaded to our Flickr archive. Click on the image to see more. The item was donated by History Society member Mollie Binns.

Keighley Library officially re-opened on the 17th August 2007, following a £1.1 million refurbishment carried out between February and August that year. Keighley Library is a Grade 2 listed building and was the first public library in England to be funded by Andrew Carnegie. It includes beautiful murals on the walls painted by Alex F. Smith. The Local Studies Library on the first floor is an amazing resource to be cherished by the town.