Trackless trolleybuses ran for the last time in Keighley on Wednesday 31st August 1932. From the following day motorised buses provided all the public transport around the town.
Trolleybuses travelled on wheels with tyres but drew their power from overhead power cables. They succeeded the electrified trams that ran along tracks laid on the main roads in and out of the town up until 1924, when the tracks were taken up but the overhead power cables were kept in place.
The colour photograph was taken in the College car park during the Keighley Transport Festival held in June 2022, and shows the restored Keighley No. 5, the Straker-Clough trolleybus that came into service in 1924.
These three gentlemen were all prize-winners at the 63rd annual show of the Haworth, Cross Roads, Lees and Oxenhope Gardeners and Allotment Holders Association, held on Saturday 29th August 1981. All three winners had the surname Shackleton (although only two were related) and between them they took home four out of the eight cups awarded. The story was covered in the 4th September edition of the Keighley News.
In 2021, Keighley and District Local History Society acquired an extensive collection of photograph negatives taken by the Keighley News. Groups of negatives were held in small wallets with the date and basic labelling written on the wallet. The photographs are from this set. The colour photograph of Haworth Village Hall was taken by Tim Neal in 2020.
William Anderton Brigg was born on 27th August 1862. He was the second son of Sir John Brigg, who became the second MP for Keighley (1895-1911, Liberal), and Mary Brigg. William was second son only by a matter of moments as he was one of twins and was just the junior to John Jeremy Brigg (1862-1945). He and his twin brother lived at Kildwick Hall between Keighley and Skipton from around 1875 to 1945. They lived there with their younger brother, and later were joined by their sister Mary following the death of her husband.
William became Mayor of Keighley in 1912, following in the footsteps of his own uncle, Benjamin Septimus Brigg, who had been Keighley’s first mayor in 1882/83. William became the longest serving Mayor, being in post for four years (1912-16). As William was a bachelor, his sister, Mary Sharpe of Darley Dale, undertook the role of mayoress. He also served as a magistrate and the Police and court report columns of local newspapers of the time are full of his deeds in dealing with the strikes and riots of 1914. He was Mayor at the start of the First World War and was very active raising funds for war bonds, aeroplanes and recruitment, and the extension buildings at the Morton Banks War Hospital.
His time as Mayor is recorded in the Keighley News Borough Jubilee supplement of 10th September 1932: “The distinction of having been Mayor of Keighley longer than anyone else belongs to Alderman William Anderton Brigg, who filled the position with great credit for four successive terms. There is practically no phase of Keighley’s public and social life in which his name does not figure. (He) entered the Town Council in 1912, and he has remained a member down to the present time. As Deputy Town Clerk for the late Mr George Burr and as Clerk to the Denholme District Council he had already had much experience of local government work. On the retirement of his uncle, Mr B. S. Brigg, Alderman Brigg was appointed his successor as chairman of the Waterworks Committee, and it was under him that the great Sladen Valley waterworks project finally grew to fruition, though, because of the war, at a cost undreamed of when the venture was first begun. He was Mayor when the Great War broke out, and two of the most difficult years in Keighley’s history passed with him at the head. His generosity for war relief objects was outstanding. Time, energy, and money were freely spent. He took a leading share in the formation of Keighley’s War Hospital; he opened war funds, and, indeed, when he retired from the Mayoralty a sum of something like £39,000 had been raised in the borough and surrounding efforts in war funds.”
Along with his twin brother, William bought East Riddlesden Hall in 1913. The hall was in a pretty poor state, having been largely refashioned in the 19th century when it was divided up to house tenant farmers. They sought, unsuccessfully, to raise funds to preserve the house, and the house ended up for sale in an auction in 1921. Finally, in 1933, it was sold to a builder with plans to redevelop the whole site, but the Briggs brothers stepped in again. The Hall and estate were handed over to the National Trust on 31st May 1934 on the understanding that it would be looked after for ever and that the land surrounding it would be used for recreation by the local communities.
William served as honorary secretary of the Keighley and District Victoria Hospital and was a staunch supporter of the Y.M.C.A. He stood for election as a Liberal MP in Skipton in 1918 and in Keighley in 1922. He was unsuccessful on both occasions, losing in Keighley to H. B. Lees-Smith who was elected as the town’s first Labour MP (by a majority of over 4000). In 1925, William became the thirteenth Honorary Freeman of Keighley, following in his father’s footsteps who was the fifth person to have the honour bestowed upon them.
He was chairman of the Board of Governors of Drake and Tonson’s School in Strawberry Street, Keighley, and in 1931 he laid a foundation stone for what would become the Keighley Girls’ Grammar School in Stoneycroft Lane, Utley. The school was officially opened in 1934 by the Right Honourable Viscount Halifax, president of the Board of Education.
William died on the 4th January 1938, aged 75. He is buried in the Quaker cemetery established by Thomas Brigg in the 17th century, located between Lustre Street and North Dean Road in the Guardhouse area of Keighley.
The portrait of William is taken from the Keighley News Borough Jubilee Supplement of 10th September 1932; the Borough Council photograph with William is his Mayoral chain is a Hill and Siggers portrait; the postcard of East Riddlesden Hall is a Walter Scott postcard; and the newspaper cutting is from the The Yorkshire Observer of 16th November 1922, photograph by George Crowther.
This is a quotation from Hird Bros. & Co. Ltd. (builders, joiners and contractors) of King Street and Otley Street, Keighley, dated 27th August 1959. It was for William Normington who lived at 118 Wheathead Lane who wanted some kitchen work done.
We know Hird Bros. & Co. Ltd. operated in the 1950s and 1960s because we have these two adverts from (top) a 1953 coronation newsletter from Keighley Parish Church and (bottom) a 1961 Keighley Amateurs’ programme.
The quotation paperwork includes the logos for the National Federation of Building Trades Employers, and the National Scheme for Disabled Men. The inclusion of the logo for the National Scheme for Disabled Men indicated the firm had undertaken to employ an approved percentage of disabled ex-servicemen, following the end of the First World War. In September 1919, King George V issued a proclamation charging employers to engage disabled sailors and soldiers, and ordering the names of employers who do so to be inscribed on the King’s National Roll. It was expected that one place in twenty in any establishment should be reserved for a disabled man, and that employers fulfilling the condition would be permitted to use a special-design, with the words “National Scheme for Disabled Men”, on their business notepaper. It was thus easy for the public to distinguish the patriotic from the unpatriotic employer.
The main picture shows Wheathead Lane taken from number 118 by John Normington in the 1950s.
The quotation and photograph is part of the John Normington Collection, donated to Keighley and District Local History Society by John’s daughter Liz Hornby in 2021.
The letter shown here is from James Wharton (Building Contractor to H.M. Office of Works) of Ingrow, for the work rebuilding the gable end wall of the Brown Cow Inn, Leeds Street, Keighley. The estimate is £400 and the letter is dated 24th August 1945.
The Brown Cow was originally four back-to-back houses, at the bottom of Leeds Street and Turkey Street, built sometime in the 1820s. When exactly it became a pub is hard to determine although there is evidence that this could be as early as the 1870s. Timothy Taylor’s Brewery bought the pub in 1901. There was extensive work carried out on the building in the late 1940s when the original walls showed signs of bulging outwards. The history and documentation was researched by Carol and Barry Taylor when they took over the pub in November 2003.
The inset picture shows landlord John Robinson and children stood outside the Brown Cow Inn, at the junction of Cross Street with Leeds Street and Turkey Street, circa 1900. The picture came to light after a newspaper appeal from Carol and Barry. The main picture was taken by Tim Neal in 2018.
Keighley News press photographs from the Worth Village Flower and Vegetable Show, held on Saturday 22nd August 1981.
In July 2021, Keighley and District Local History Society acquired an extensive collection of photograph negatives taken by the Keighley News. Groups of negatives were held in small wallets with the date and basic labelling written on the wallet.
Ever spotted the squirrel-adorned weathervane on the dome of the former Temperance Hall in Keighley? The building is now The Livery Rooms, a Wetherspoon’s pub.
This black-and-white photograph was taken on 20th August 1981 by a Keighley News photographer. The reason for taking the photograph is unknown as it does not appear to have featured in a subsequent copy of the paper. Perhaps it was just the photographer practicing with their telephoto lens.
In 2021, Keighley and District Local History Society acquired an extensive collection of photograph negatives taken by the Keighley News. Groups of negatives were held in small wallets with the date and basic labelling written on the wallet. This image is developed from one of those negatives. The main photograph was taken by Tim Neal in 2022.
Children and mothers assembled on the steps of Lund Park Methodist Chapel Sunday School on Malsis Road. The occasion was a Victory Party following the end of war in Europe, held on 18th August 1945. The photograph was one of many taken by local photographer George Shore (the postcard-sized photograph is stamped on the back). Shore went around recording the many street parties that took place and then made the photographs available for people to buy as a record of the occasion.
George A. Shore was a popular Keighley-based freelance photographer who simultaneously ran his photography business alongside running a carpet and linoleum store in Keighley market. Examples of his work exist from the 1930s and 1940s, and included outdoor events such as Keighley Gala, the coronation of King George VI, Victory street parties at the end of the Second World War, theatre productions, weddings, and landscapes. Many of his photographs were commissioned by and printed in the Keighley News. His original prints could be embossed “G. A. Shore” or stamped on the back in a circle “Geo. A. Shore”. In his other lines of business, Shore was an early member of Keighley Road Club and used to deliver rolls of carpet and linoleum via his motorbike and sidecar, aided by assistant Sam Scaife. Shore died in 1946.
The Lund Park Wesleyan Chapel (next door to the Sunday School) was opened in 1895 but closed in April 1970 and was subsequently demolished. It was located between Upper Hird Street and Upper Calton Street.
The photograph was loaned to Keighley and District Local History Society for scanning by Janet Bastow (nee Pickles) in 2022.
Keighley Library was officially reopened following a major refurbishment on 17th August 2007. The refurbishment took place between February and August and cost around £1.1 million.
Bradford Council craftsmen restored the inside to its original arts and crafts interior after repairing the roof. The job also included cleaning the building’s grime-encrusted stained glass windows and installing a new heating system, complete with replica original radiators. There was new furniture and shelving, and more than £50,000 worth of new stock.
The official opening was conducted by Bradford’s Deputy Lord Mayor, Councillor Elaine Byrom, who was quoted in the Keighley News of 23rd August 2007: “This is a magnificent restoration and a wonderful centre of learning, with new facilities such as more computers, a café, many new books and more resources in the local studies library.”
The refurbishment was awarded a commendation by the Bradford District Designs for Architecture in 2008.
Main photograph of the commemorative plaque taken by Tim Neal in 2022. Smaller photographs of the refurbishment taken by Jan Perkins on the day of the reopening.
The foundation stone for Holy Trinity Church in Lawkholme was laid on 3rd September 1881. The church was consecrated nearly a year later on 16th August 1882.
The church was located at the junction of Lawkholme Lane with East Avenue. Originally a house was rented at 78 Lawkholme Lane and was used for worship and a Sunday School. This opened on the 15th September 1878. Two years later the Duke of Devonshire donated the site so that a church, school and vicarage could be built, and donated £1,000 towards the building costs.
The architect of the church was Joseph Booth Bailey of Keighley. The first vicar was the Reverend Frederick Warden Roberts. The Sunday School was built in 1886 and the vicarage followed in 1892.
The Lawkholme Parish covered an extensive area in a rough triangle shape running from the junction of Bow Street with North Street, northwards along North Street/Skipton Road to Beechcliffe, then across to Stockbridge and then back along Bradford Road/East Parade to the centre of the town.
The church finally closed in 1972 and was demolished soon after. The site is now occupied by industrial units on the Lawkholme Lane Industrial Estate.
The main photograph shows the interior of the church circa 1950. The large inset photograph shows the exterior of the church in 1895. The small inset photograph shows the interior of the church once demolition had started in 1972. All images from the History Society archive on Flickr.
