The History Society is having a stall at the Village Showcase, being held in Haworth Village Hall (on Butt Lane) on Saturday 21st March 2026. The event is an opportunity to let locals know what groups and clubs operate in the area. It will run from 2pm to 4.30pm. It is free to attend, with an opportunity to buy refreshments.
The History Society will be showcasing what the society gets up to and sharing some of the Haworth-related stories. You can also join the History Society on the day. Membership costs £15 for the rest of 2026. Please pay in cash as sadly we don’t have a way of taking electronic payments.
This month’s History Society meeting is taking place next Wednesday (11th March 2026) in the Civic Centre. Olivia Johnston, Photo Archive Assistant at Bradford District Museums and Galleries, will be giving her talk ‘C. H. Wood: Photographer & Pioneer’.
Charles Harold Wood started his photography career in 1922 and he went on to become one of the best known photographers in the region. His client list read like a Who’s Who of Bradford industry as he was employed by most of the big textile, engineering and manufacturing firms. Using his interest in flying he also specialised in aerial photography, producing crystal clear views of the North of England. He set up the firm C.H. Wood (Bradford) Ltd. which was carried on by his sons when Charles retired in the 1970s.
The C. H. Wood photographic archive is available to browse online as part of The Photograph Archive of Bradford District Museums & Galleries.
The meeting will be held upstairs in the main hall of Keighley Civic Centre on North Street on Wednesday 11th March. There is a lift at the front of the building and one inside for anyone who needs it. Doors open at 7.15pm, and the meeting starts at around 7.20pm, finishing around 8.30pm. Anyone is welcome to attend the meeting. Entry costs £3.50 (or free for history society members). History Society members also have the option of joining the meeting via Zoom.
Anyone interested in joining the History Society can do so at this meeting. Membership for the year costs £15 per person or £20 for a couple. As well as getting you free access to all the monthly meetings, membership also gets you the society’s quarterly newsletter plus the chance to attend members-only events.
Are you intrigued by detective work, or have you ever wondered where a crime writer gets their plots, then get along to Keighley Library on Saturday 7th March 1.30 – 3.00 pm to celebrate International Women’s Day 2026 and delve into the world of Crime.
Journalist and author Sharon Wright (and friend of the History Society) will be interviewing former Detective Superintendent Vanessa Smith on her groundbreaking career as a police officer with West Yorkshire Police.
Vanessa worked for vice, robbery and drugs squads before becoming the first female West Yorkshire Police murder squad detective. Now after a long and decorated career, Vanessa advises authors and production companies on crime procedurals and appeared as the law-enforcement expert on ‘Killer in My Village’ on Sky TV.
Sharon wrote the bestselling biography of ‘Maria Branwell: Mother of the Brontës’, and ‘The Lost History of the Lady Aeronauts’, and has spoken to the History Society on both topics. She is co-author with Ann Dinsdale of ‘Let Me In: The Brontës in Bricks and Mortar’. Sharon writes for magazines and newspapers including The Guardian, The Times and Woman & Home and has appeared on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour and Today programme. In 2024 Sharon won a correction to the spelling of the Brontë name on the memorial in Westminster Abbey.
The afternoon will conclude with Vanessa taking the audience on an eye-opening journey as they investigate a murder scenario together. There will also be plenty of opportunities to ask questions and enjoy an insider’s guide to solving crime at Keighley Library.
History Society committee member Tim Neal took a visit to NT East Riddlesden Hall earlier this week (and the weather was appropriately “wuthering”) to see the property’s newest exhibition ‘Lights, Camera, Bronte: East Riddlesden Hall on Screen’.
It’s well worth a visit! It’s a combination of documenting how the Hall’s exteriors and interiors have been used in three seperate film and TV versions of Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, with imaginative recreations of how Emily described the novel’s various settings.
The exhibition is spread around the house and is free to visit as part of paid-entry to the Hall and grounds. It’s open until at least the middle of May 2026.
It’s also worth noting that a small but comprehensive display has just opened at the Bronte Parsonage Museum that gives some background on many (all?) of the screen adaptations of ‘Wuthering Heights’ – some well known, some definitely not.
Next week’s History Society meeting (Wednesday 11th February) is committee member Tim Neal with his talk “Keighley: Through the Lens of Hall & Siggers”. The talk tells the history of the photography studio on Cavendish Street from the early years of the 20th century through to the mid-1950s when it closed, and uses dozens of examples of their photographs to illustrate what life was like in the town in the first half of the last century.
The meeting will take place upstairs in the Civic Centre, on North Street. Doors open at 7.15pm and the meeting will start just before 7.30pm. Entry is free to History Society members, or £3.50 for anyone else who wants to just come along (booking is not required). Members can also choose to join the meeting via Zoom if they wish.
If you are a member and haven’t had the chance to pay your 2026 subs yet, or if you want to join the History Society, membership for the rest of 2026 costs £15 (or £20 for two people at the same address). Please pay in cash on the night. As well as free entry to our monthly meetings, membership also gets you invited to members-only events and you will receive the quarterly newsletter via email.
The History Society would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.
2026 is shaping up to be very exciting, with a very interesting set of guest-speakers and events lined up.
To start us off we have author Anthony C. Cartwright telling us the story of the anti-vaxxers, starting with objections to Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccine in the early 19th century, a propaganda war waged by the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League and its successor from 1853 to 1972, and then brings things up to date covering the first two decades of the 21st century. In particular, he will talk about the Keighley Guardians who in the 1870s were imprisoned in York for the stand they took. Tony brings a well-informed perspective to the history, having worked as a UK Medicines Agency drug regulator for twenty years, but also having had an adverse reaction to a vaccine in the 1960s.
Tony has written a book on the subject, ‘A History of Vaccines and Anti-Vaxxers’, more details can be found on Tony’s website (https://anthonybooks.co.uk/).
The History Society’s first meeting of 2026 is on Wednesday 14th January at 7.15pm. It is a Zoom-only meeting, open just to History Society members (details on how to join the meeting will be sent out to members via email a few days in advance).
The History Society’s Christmas Meeting is on Wednesday 10th December 2025. This is an informal meeting, with the chance to look at some of the items that have been donated this year, plus a picture quiz (how well do you know doors in Keighley District?!?) and a look back at Christmas in the town fifty years ago. All of this accompanied by tea, coffee, mince pies and brownies.
The meeting is being held in Keighley Creative on Cooke Lane (where Argos used to be), doors open at 7.15pm and we finish around 8.30pm. Entry is free to History Society members and £3.50 for visitors (cash only please).
This is also a chance to take out membership for 2026. Membership costs £15 for the year (or £20 for a couple). If you would like to join the History Society at the meeting, please bring along the right money.
Great coverage in this week’s Keighley News of next week’s History Society meeting (on Wednesday 8th October). The meeting will feature a talk by textile experts Pam Brook and Helen Farrar on the work of various local firms who specialised in silk and artificial silk weaving, and how the output of these firms contributed to the war effort during the Second World War.
The meeting starts at 7.15pm in the Civic Centre on North Street (and will finish around 8.45pm). Anyone is welcome to attend. Entry is £3.50 (free to History Society members – History Society members can also join via Zoom). The meeting is in the main hall on the first floor and there is a lift for those who need it.
If you wish to join the History Society, membership costs £15 for the calendar year, and taking out membership this month gets you the rest of 2025 plus all of 2026.
A massive thank you to Karl-Heinz Wustner who spoke to the History Society at the Local Studies Library yesterday (Wednesday 1st October). His talk was entitled ‘Meeting the Meat Demand’ and told the story of how many German families came over to Keighley and West Yorkshire in the 19th century and successfully set themselves up as pork butchers in the town.
Over forty society members and visitors were present in the Library, several being the descendants of these families. The event was a great success, and our thanks to the staff of the Library who made us so welcome.
The History Society’s next talk is ‘Parachutes, Escape Maps and Wedding Dresses’, on artificial silk weaving in the area, to be given by textile experts Pam Brook and Helen Farrar on Wednesday 8th October at 7.15pm in the Civic Centre on North Street.
