Keighley and District Family History Society have merged with Wharfedale Family History Group
As from 1st Jan they become the Airedale & Wharfedale FHS with a brand new website.
KDLHS wish them every success in their new Society.
Family History News
Category Archives: News
Newsletter 13
The latest History Society newsletter is available now.
When Hollywood Came to Keighley
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.
Yanks director John Schlesinger in a publicity shot taken in the railway goods yard at the end of Cavendish Street. The Victoria Hotel can be seen in the background.
The railway goods yard at the end of Cavendish Street, before it was cleared to make way for Sainsbury’s. Photograph by G. L. Kitchen, taken from the History Society’s digital collection.
The railway goods yard as it is today – the Sainsbury’s car park. Photograph taken by History Society member Tim Neal in 2018.
Annual Review 2018
It’s been a busy year for the History Society. If you want to find out more about what we’ve been up to, click on the photo below which will take your to our annual review album on Flickr or for more detail read the Annual Report.
If you want to support what we do, you might want to consider becoming a member. It costs £10 a year and your money helps us grow, preserve and share the collections. You can join by coming along to a guest speaker’s meeting (the next two are at Keighley Library on 12th December 2018 and 9th January 2019) or there are details on the “Support Us” page of this website.
Souvenir of Haworth
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.
Remembrance Day and Keighley War Memorial
In the run-up to Remembrance Sunday next weekend, we have published a series of photographs of the War Memorial in Town Hall Square from the last 90 years. 100 years ago the First World War ended, and a new world began. The example and experience of those who lived through it shaped the world we live in today. The History Society would like to add its voice in saying Thank You to all who served, sacrificed and changed our world. There will be a Remembrance Service in Keighley on Sunday 11th November, including a wreath laying ceremony at the Cenotaph at 11 a.m. followed by two minutes silence. (All the images in this gallery are taken from our archives and are published on our Flickr pages here.)
Postcard donated by the Atkinson family, showing the dedication ceremony.
Samuel Gott and his prize-winning model
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.
Keighley Rugby Club
A new album of Keighley Rugby Club programmes from the 1950s to the 1970s has just been added to the History Society’s Flickr archive. They include club reports from the period and dozens of adverts from various businesses at that time.
Keighley Bus Museum Open Day
Keighley Bus Museum Trust is having a “twilight running day” this Sunday (28 October) between 12 noon and 7pm. Some of the museum’s vintage buses will be running between the museum at Riverside (off Dalton Lane), and Keighley Railway Station, Keighley Bus Station and Keighley Town Centre. The museum will be open, where there will be transport related stalls, refreshments and toilet facilities available. As darkness draws in, visitors can relive the memories of night travels on heritage buses. More information is available on the KBMT website (http://www.kbmt.org.uk/special-events/twilight-running-day/)
On This Day…
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.
