These Keighley News press photographs were taken on 7th October 1981 to record the removing of the stained-glass windows from the old church on Temple Street.
The two war memorial stained glass windows from the Temple Street Methodist Chapel were ‘Two Minstrel Angels with Harps’ and ‘Christ Receiving a Soldier in Heaven’. The windows were designed by J. Henry Dearle and were made in 1921 by Morris & Co. They were originally installed in Temple Street Methodist Chapel, on either side of the organ, to commemorate the members of the congregation who were killed during the First World War.
The windows were given to Bradford Art Galleries and Museums by the Bangladesh Islamic Association after they took over the chapel building. The two windows are now on display in the Stained Glass Gallery, at Cliffe Castle Museum.
Eric Lund in his column in the Keighley News, 16th October 1981: “When I went along to the former Temple Street Methodist Chapel last week to see those two beautiful stained glass memorial windows removed, I was saddened to see the wanton damage which has been done to the building and adjoining Sunday School premises… At one time the idea was to have the area cleared ready to make way for new development at some future time. But a conservation order was put on the whole site and the hope was that owners would set about restoring some of the historic buildings… The Bangladeshi Islamic Association have impressive plans to convert the old chapel, and already they have held some prayer meetings in the ground floor area which they have now cleared of its former chapel pews.”
In 2021, Keighley and District Local History Society acquired an extensive collection of photograph negatives taken by the Keighley News in the 1980s. Groups of negatives were held in small wallets with the date and basic labelling written on the wallet. These photographs are from that collection. The colour photograph of the former church was taken by Tim Neal in 2018.
