On Saturday 10th September 1932, the town celebrated fifty years since the Borough of Keighley was formed. The actual incorporation had taken place in July 1884. This meant a local town council and mayor taking on responsibility for running various services within the area.
The jubilee celebrations on that Saturday started with a civic procession led by the Mayor (Alderman Michael P. Cryer) from the Town Hall to Keighley Parish Church for a commemoration service. The service was led jointly by the Rector of Keighley (Reverend J. C. F. Hood), the President of the Free Church Council (Reverend George Midgley) and the vicar of Devonshire Street Congregational Church (Reverend H. Stowell). There followed a public luncheon in the Municipal Hall (Mechanics’ Institute), catered by Mr E. Atkinson. Tickets were four shillings each.
The main event was a procession that set off from Lund Park at 2.30pm and headed down to Victoria Park (in a rather loopy fashion!). The procession was made up of the Mayor, Mayoress, and members of the town council, the local MP (George S. Harvie Watt) and his wife, Keighley Borough Band and the Band of the Sixth Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, children from many of the local schools who formed historic tableaux on the back of lorries and carts, and students from the Technical College who also created tableaux.
A tea party in Victoria Park (catered by Keighley Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd.) was held for school children, at which they were presented with commemorative mugs. Various entertainments were provided for all from a stage erected in the park, there was an exhibition netball match between a team from Keighley Girls’ Grammar School and a team from various Keighley elementary schools, tree planting led by the Mayor, and a massed male voice choirs concert. To end the evening at 9pm there was a grand display of fireworks staged by Messrs Henry Shaw & Sons of Huddersfield.
A 12-page Official Programme for the day was available, printed by Wadsworth & Co. Ltd. of Russell Street. The full programme can be found on the History Society’s Flickr site. The main photograph is a detail from a Valentine’s postcard showing North Street in 1930.
