This Easter Communion Service card was produced for St. Peter’s Church in Keighley. Possibly from the 1920s, the vicar at the time was John Wood.
John Wood had served as a curate at Holy Trinity Church in Bingley followed by a period as curate at St. John’s Church in Ingrow. A history of St. John’s written in 1943 has Wood arriving on 26th September 1910 under Reverend Charles Frederick Askew (vicar from 1906 to 1911) and departing on 19th December 1912 when the vicar was William Thompson Elliott. He moved on to Keighley Parish Church and its daughter church All Saints. In 1917 he succeeded the Reverend D. E. James as vicar of St. James’ Church in Cross Roads with Lees, later becoming vicar of St. Peter’s.
St. Peter’s Church was located at the junction of South Street and King Street. The church was consecrated in 1882. Its stone came from Woodhouse Quarry, its pews were of pitch pine and it could seat 850. Its activities included men’s and women’s help societies, Bible and singing classes, a Band of Hope, Church Temperance Society, Mothers’ Union and even a savings bank. St Peter’s was demolished in 1956, although its congregation continued until 1975 to use its former Sunday School, in Kensington Street. The site is currently occupied by Enterprise Car Rental.
The Easter Communion card was donated to Keighley and District Local History Society by Sonia Bown in February 2022. The main photograph is from a 1950s postcard published by Lilywhite Ltd.