The inauguration of Keighley Hall in Poix-du-Nord, France, took place on Monday 5th June 1922. The event was attended by Councillor James Longton (Mayor of Keighley 1921-22), Alderman Albert Smith, Councillor W. A. Brigg, Councillor G. A. Calverley and Samuel Clough. The building was designed by Keighley architects W. H. & A. Sugden.
Keighley established links with Poix-du-Nord after the first world war. In 1920, under the scheme of the British League of Help for Devastated Areas in France, Keighley ‘adopted’ Poix-du-Nord and raised over £4,000 by public subscription for a civic hall, which opened in 1922 and was named Keighley Hall.
There is also a street in the town named after Alderman Ferdinand N. Binns (Rue Ferdinand Binns), a former Mayor of Keighley (1918-20), who was awarded the Order and Cross of the Legion of Honour for his efforts to promote good relations between the two towns.
Regular visits between the two towns were exchanged by the branches of the International Brotherhood Alliance (founded in 1905) up until 1938. The town was visited again by the Mayor and Mayoress of Keighley (Mr and Mrs J. E. Brownbridge), the town clerk (Mr J. A. Caesar), the borough architect (Mr. B. A. Waddington) and Councillor David Seeley and his wife Judith Seeley (Judith was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Brownbridge) between Friday 30th May and Sunday 1st June 1969.
All the items shown here are from a collection that records the Mayoral Year of Alderman John Edward Brownbridge and his wife, Councillor Alice Gertrude Brownbridge, as Mayor and Mayoress of Keighley, from May 1969 to May 1970. The collection now belongs to their granddaughter and was loaned to the History Society for scanning in July 2019 by David Seeley.
