Happy birthday to the Keighley News, which was first printed on 5th April 1862 and so is celebrating being 160 years old! The paper was launched in 1862 by prosperous Bradford printer William Byles, with its first editor being Scottish schoolmaster Duncan Campbell. The paper supported the Liberal cause, in recognition of Keighley as a town of strong radical politics. Competition came along eleven years later in the form of the Keighley Herald, with its Conservative outlook. This lasted until 1911 and since then the Keighley News has been the sole local newspaper.
But it wasn’t the first. One of the first on record was The Monthly Teacher, edited in 1829 by the Reverend Theodore Dury. Other earlier attempts included The Keighley Visitor and General Advertiser, also monthly, overseen by the Temperance Society; and the very long-titled Keighley and Haworth Argus and Kildwick and Cross Hills, Steeton and Silsden Advertiser.
The Keighley News is still available today – in print and online – under the stewardship of Alistair Shand – and long may it continue. The images seen here are adverts that appeared in a centenary supplement published in April 1962, celebrating the first 100 years of the paper. The paper itself has outlasted many of the firms that are shown here toasting its longevity. Enormous thanks to History Society member Colin Kirkham who provided us with a copy of the supplement.
