Author: Admin Tim

Tim is a committee member of the Keighley and District Local History Society, with responsibilities for archiving the physical and digital collections, and managing some of the social media channels. He moved to Keighley about 15 years ago and joined the Society to learn more about the area.

Covid-19 Impact Update

The History Society committee managed to get together last night via a video conference. In addition to the statement issued by chairperson Joyce Newton last month, we have cancelled June’s meeting (a visit to Pennine Weavers). Obviously future meetings will be reviewed dependent on what government guidelines are saying nearer the time.

Also we have agreed that anyone who has paid the membership fees for 2020, that that membership will also cover 2021.

In the meantime we will continue to post items that we hope are of interest on our online channels: Facebook, Flickr and our website.

Best wishes to everyone – stay safe and healthy.

The Committee: Joyce, Anne-Marie, Paula, Sarah, Steve, Tim, Christine and Gerald.

Rationing it out

Hopefully we won’t need these again in the near future… This is a Ministry of Food Ration Book issued to Sonia Waddington (now Sonia Bown) for 1953/54. The retailers authorised to provide Sonia with her allowance were Sam Bosworth Butchers at 30 Victoria Road, Keighley Industrial Co-Operative Society (store No 12 on Victoria Road), and Hird & Sons butchers on Oakworth Road (next door to Dewhirst’s newsagents). Rationing came to a complete end in July 1954. The item was loaned to the History Society for scanning by Sonia in March 2019.

Ration Book belonging to Sonia Bown (nee Waddington). Scanned by KDLHS in March 2019.

Chairperson Statement

Following the recent advice from the Government and Health Officials, the History Society committee held an Extraordinary Meeting and voted to suspend all face-to-face History Society events with immediate effect and until at least the start of June.

This covers guest speaker meetings, archive sessions, face-to-face committee meetings and involvement in events. This is so that we play our part in minimising the chance of spreading the Covid-19 virus and in protecting the most vulnerable members of society.

Guidance on practical steps we should all be taking can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-on-social-distancing-and-for-vulnerable-people

We felt this decision was the most responsible course of action we could take. We know that it will disappoint some people but will reassure others. We will continue to publish photographs and news stories about Keighley’s rich history on our website, Facebook pages and Flickr site, so please stay in touch with us on there. Please pass this message on to people who may not otherwise see it.

We will review the situation at the start of June and will again look to official guidance on best practice at that time.

Right now we are living through a moment that will be written about in the history books of tomorrow. Let us all play our part in making sure it is recorded as a time when we showed extraordinary kindness towards each other and were considerate to the needs of everyone in our society.

Joyce Newton, Chairperson KDLHS 16 March 2020

Next Week’s Meeting

Next week’s History Society meeting (Wednesday 11th March) is about the forthcoming Transport Festival at the end of May. Festival co-ordinator Graham Mitchell will give an overview of the whole Festival, then History Society committee member Steve Bown will talk about the ‘Ten Tales of Transport’ the History Society is planning to tell in its exhibition in the Civic Centre. We are also inviting people to come along and share their own transport-related stories and bring along any photographs that we could scan and perhaps use in the exhibition. We are particularly interested in photographs relating to the various cycling clubs that operated in and around Keighley in the 50s/60s, and any trips organised by firms or church groups or the like that took people to places like the coast or the countryside. If you have anything you are willing to share, please bring it down.

The meeting will happen in Keighley Library. Doors open at 7pm with the meeting starting at 7.30pm. Tea and coffee will be served. It costs £3 to attend (to help cover our costs) or £1 for History Society members.

Yester-Day-Trips

The History Society is appealing for photographs relating to daytrips organised by local firms or church groups or the like, from the 1930s to the 1970s. We would like to include as many as we can in the exhibition we are putting on in the Civic Centre as part of the Keighley Transport Festival at the end of May. These can be coach trips, train trips, or even mass-cycle-rides – any sort of transport qualifies.

We’d like to know which business / church / group organised the trip, who went on it, what transport was used, where it was to and (at least roughly) when it happened.

If you can help, please comment below or come along to our next meeting in Keighley Library from 7pm on the 11th of March, where we will have a scanner to take copies of photographs and where we will take notes to go along with the photographs.

Members of the Young Wives Club of Lund Park Methodist Chapel about to embark on a Mystery Coach Tour in the 1960s. Photograph loaned to Keighley and District Local History Society by Glenis Hey of Oakworth in February 2020.
Employees of J. W. Hartley & Sons celebrating the centenary of the company with a coach trip in 1974. From the History Society digital archive.

Cycling Stories

Keighley Transport Festival, ‘In Motion’, is happening on the 24th and 25th May 2020.

As part of the Festival, the History Society is putting on an exhibition called ‘Ten Tales of Transport’ in the Civic Centre. One of the tales we would like to tell is that of the various cycling clubs that were active in or around the town in the 1940s/50s/60s – clubs such as Keighley Road Club, St Christopher’s Cycling Club, Keighley Clarion Cycling Club, Aireworth Cycling Club, Keighley Velo Cycling Club, and Bronte Wheelers Cycling Club.

We are looking for people who can help us tell this particular tale with information and photographs about one or more of the clubs. If you can help, please comment below or come along to the special History Society meeting on 11th March (upstairs in Keighley Library from 7pm to 8.30pm where we shall have a scanner to take copies of documents or photographs).

Keep an eye on Facebook or our website as we make requests for help on other tales we wish to tell.

Derek Bown, competing in York on behalf of Keighley Road Club in 1959. Photograph courtesy of Derek Bown.
Keighley Road Club, 1959. Photograph courtesy of Derek Bown.
Cover of brochure for the Keighley Festival of Cycling Weekend in October 1969. Courtesy of Derek Bown.

Longlands Hall, 2020

Last weekend, Haworth Youth Hostel in Cross Roads with Lees threw open its door for local residents to have a look around. The Hostel occupies Longlands Hall, built for mill-owning family the Merralls in the early 1880s. Many of the original features of the house survive to this day. This is an album of images from that rather damp Sunday taken by History Society committee member Tim Neal. #

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Trolleybus Talk

The History Society was at Keighley Bus Museum earlier today to photograph forthcoming guest-speaker Gerald Newton with the Straker Clough trackless trolleybus Keighley No.5, currently being refurbished at the museum.

Gerald will be giving a talk on Wednesday 12th February on the history of the bus and the refurbishment project. The talk will be upstairs in Keighley Library (there is a lift for those who need it). Doors open at 7pm and the talk will start at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome and it costs £3 to attend (£1 to History Society members). You can also join the History Society at any of our meetings. Membership costs £10 for the year.

Guest-speaker Gerald Newton and the Straker Clough trackless trolleybus Keighley No. 5. Photograph taken by Tim Neal.
The Straker Clough trackless trolleybus Keighley No. 5. Photograph taken by Tim Neal.
The Straker Clough trackless trolleybus Keighley No. 5. Photograph taken by Tim Neal.
The interior of the bottom deck of the Straker Clough trackless trolleybus Keighley No. 5. Photograph taken by Tim Neal.