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October’s History Society Meeting

October’s History Society meeting will be a talk from guest speaker Ian Bottomley, former senior curator at the Royal Armouries in Leeds. The talk describes how the Portuguese, who were exploring the East, had trade guns made in Goa that they then spread further East, reaching Japan in 1543 and influencing that country’s history. Ian will be bringing along a couple of antique guns, and some accessories that attendees can handle.

The meeting is on Wednesday 9th October 2024 and will be held in the Local Studies Library, upstairs in Keighley Library. Doors open at 7.15pm (please use the Albert Street entrance if arriving at the Library after 7pm). There is a lift to access the first floor. Entry is free to History Society members and is £3.50 to anyone else – all are welcome to attend. The meeting is scheduled to finish around 8.45pm.

Membership of the History Society costs £15 for the calendar year. You can join at any of our meetings in the Library. If you join at this meeting you will get membership for 2025 with the rest of 2024 thrown in. Cash only please.

Lost & Forgotten Inns & Pubs

A reminder that it’s Eddie Kelly’s talk on The Lost and Forgotten Inns of Keighley tomorrow evening (Wednesday 11th November 2024). This is a members-only meeting held on Zoom. Members should’ve had their email from Anne-Marie by now with details on how to join the meeting (please check your junk mail folders if you can’t find it).

September 2024 Events

Plenty of activities lining up for September…

Sunday 1st September – Keighley Bus Museum is having an Open Day at their Dalton Lane site. The History Society has a display.

Saturday 7th September – Keighley Show. The History Society has a stall – hope to see lots of you there. We will have a special offer on History Society membership for new members – pay for 2025 membership and get the rest of 2024 thrown in. Membership is £15 (cash-only please).

Monday 9th September – The History Society is holding a guided walk around Keighley town centre as part of the Keighley Walking Festival. Meet at the Town Hall Square at 1pm (distance is about 1.5 miles, comfortable shows advised).

Wednesday 11th September – September’s History Society meeting is Eddie Kelly talking about the ‘Lost & Forgotten Inns & Public Houses of Keighley’. This meeting is on Zoom (NOT in the library) and is a members-only meeting.

Hope to see as many of you as possible at these different events.

‘120 Years of Keighley Library’ Talk

The History Society’s meeting on Wednesday attracted record crowds to hear society member Tim Neal give his talk on ‘120 Years of Keighley Library’. Thank you to everyone who came along and we hope you enjoyed it.

Tim also wants to thank the Local Studies Library, not just for letting us hold the meeting in the Library, but for the invaluable help they gave him in putting the presentation together. And thank you to Sue Hughes and Anne-Marie Dewhirst who took photographs during the evening.

Next month’s talk is Eddie Kelly on ‘Lost and Forgotten Inns and Public Houses of Keighley’. This meeting is a members-only one and will be held on Zoom. We’ll be back in the Library in October.

August Talk on History of Library

Great coverage in this week’s Keighley News of the forthcoming History Society meeting. Tim Neal will be telling the 120 years story of Keighley Library by dropping off at twelve key dates during its history and talking about the innovations and key people involved.

The talk is on Wednesday 14th August 2024, upstairs in the local studies library of Keighley Library. The meeting starts about 7.20pm. Please use the entrance on Albert Street.

Anyone is welcome to come along. It is free to History Society members and £3.50 to anyone else, no need to book in advance. History Society members can also join in via Zoom.

Yorkshire Day Display

Happy Yorkshire Day 2024!

For one day only (Thursday 1st August 2024), the History Society is celebrating with a display of the town and surrounding area’s history in one of the shops in the Airedale Shopping Centre. If you get the chance, please pop in to say hello.

We are in the unit between Clarks shoe shop and Clinton’s card shop from 10 am until 4pm today.

Keighley’s Yorkshire Day 2024

Come and have fun in Keighley, as we celebrate Yorkshire Day Keighley style.

Lots to do for children of all ages organised by Keighley Town Council.

No visiting Mayors this year but visiting Princesses and Transformers with all sorts of activities going on in the Airedale Centre and on Church Green and Market Place. See our Calender Event for more details

KDLHS will again be holding our Gallery of Photographs and information about the town. We will be there to talk to you and discuss everything Keighley. Come and join us.

Keighley Town Council Yorkshire Day Event

The last show at the Hippodrome

We’ve just uploaded to the History Society’s Flickr site all the scans from the programme for “Oklahoma!”, produced by Keighley Amateurs in 1956. This production was significant because it was the last show of any kind performed in the Hippodrome Theatre in town. In fact, the theatre had officially closed a few months earlier but reopened especially for this show. After that the theatre closed for good and was demolished in 1961 as part of the town centre redevelopment.

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The programme is part of the Joy Rundle Collection, donated to the society by Jane Eaman and Mark Rundle in 2023. It contains details of the show plus dozens of adverts for local businesses from the time.