Our first History Society meeting of 2020 is this Wednesday (8th January). Retired university lecturer and curator of the website NotJustHockney.info, Colin Neville will present his talk on seven locally-based but nationally-acclaimed artists. He will also be selling copies of his tie-in book (£5 each, all proceeds to the upkeep of Silsden Town Hall).

History Society guest speaker talks take place upstairs at Keighley Library. Doors open at 7pm and the meetings start at 7.30pm. There is a lift available for those who need it. Tea and coffee is served. Admission is open to all and it costs £3 (£1 for History Society members).

You can support the work done by the History Society by becoming a member at one of our meetings. Membership costs £10 (£15 for a couple) and goes to supporting the work that we do plus gives reduced admission to our meetings and the opportunity to take part in members-only activities.

The latest History Society newsletter is now available. It covers the monthly meetings for January to March and reveals some of the plans for the History Society in the year ahead. If anyone wants to join the History Society and support what we do plus have access to members-only events please come along to any monthly meeting or see the support-us section of this website.

The History Society would like to offer an apology for the sound difficulties in tonight’s talk (Ian Dewhirst: Keighley Christmases in the Past). It didn’t do Ian justice (although, as someone pointed out, he didn’t have a very high opinion of IT himself so would possibly have been amused by the shenanigans). Anyone who attended the talk is welcome to attend any one of 2020’s talks free of charge. Just let Sarah on the desk know on the evening. We hope those who stayed and huddled around the projector finally got to enjoy the talk. We will post the talk on our Flickr page this weekend for those who could not stay. Our apologies again, and we hope you have an enjoyable time over the Christmas period.

It’s the last History Society meeting of the year next Wednesday (11th December) and we are marking Christmas with something special. Firstly there will be (quite literally) a pub quiz – identifying pubs past and present from the area. Then we have a recording of the late Ian Dewhirst talking about Christmases past that we will play accompanied by postcards and images of old Keighley. We will also be serving mince pies alongside the usual tea and coffee.

The meeting is upstairs in Keighley Library on Wednesday 11th December. There is a lift for those who need it. Doors open at 7pm and the evening kicks off at 7.30pm, usually ending around 8.30pm. It costs £3 to attend (£1 for History Society members).

Anyone wanting to join for 2020 can do so on the evening. Membership costs £10 for an individual (£15 for a couple), which goes to supporting the work we do and gives you reduced entry to the monthly meetings and access to the members-only events.

The Bus Museum’s second event of the year will be on Sunday July 14th 2019, at Riverside off Dalton Lane, with refreshments, displays and a regular free bus service linking the Museum at Dalton Lane with Keighley Town Centre. Public entry to the Museum is £3.00 on the day. This is a chance to see their restoration projects including Keighley Number 5 the 1924 Straker Clough the world’s oldest double deck trolleybus, together with a selection of other such vehicles in the Museum. The History Society will have a display for people to look at. For more information visit kbmt.org.uk