Read of the D-Day experience of a man who chose to settle in Keighley after World War II and became one of our local leading actors.
Category: History
October Guest-Speaker
This month’s History Society guest speaker talk on Zoom will be “North Street and beyond as seen through the lens of Wilfred Moore”, a presentation by local historian Eddie Kelly. Some of you will know that Wilfred Moore was the father of Captain Sir Tom Moore as well as being a keen photographer around Keighley. The talk features many rarely-seen images of the town.
The talk is happening on Wednesday 13th October. ‘Doors open’ at 7pm. It is a History Society members-only talk but if you want to join the Society please click here. History Society members should receive their email from Anne-Marie with details on how to join the meeting in the next few days.
September 1981
The latest album of photographs from our recently acquired Keighley News Archive has been published on Flickr. It is nearly 400 photographs taken for the Keighley News forty years ago in September 1981.
The negatives were scanned by Tim Neal on behalf of the History Society. Tim has also been into the Local Studies Library in Keighley to research old copies of the Keighley News to find out more about some of the pictures.
More albums will be released over the next few months.
Keighley Show 1981
This coming weekend would’ve been the Keighley and District Agricultural Show, but the coronavirus pandemic meant the decision was made not to go ahead this year.
However, to mark the occasion we have just uploaded our latest album of photographs from our Keighley News archive. It’s over 100 photographs from the Keighley Show forty years ago in September 1981.
Old News Becomes New News
The History Society’s discovery of several thousand black-and-white negatives that were taken by the Keighley News has made headlines in this week’s Keighley News! Copies of the paper can be bought in all good newsagents.
The photographs were taken in the early 1980s and cover, amongst other things, sporting events, golden wedding anniversaries, political events, shows and galas, theatrical productions and charity events. A real slice-of-life for early 80s Keighley.
The pictures are being made available to view on the History Society’s Flickr page. It takes a while to scan and label the images, so we are releasing new albums every few weeks. The first few albums can be seen here.
History Tour of the Town
The History Society held its first face-to-face event since March last year this afternoon, when several members gathered for a guided history tour around the town centre. The tour was led by Tim with welcome input from Joyce and Graham. Thanks to Steve for taking the photographs. We hope everyone who came along enjoyed it, and if there is interest we will look at rerunning it in the future.
Keighley News Archive
The History Society has acquired 1,000s of black and white negatives of photographs taken by the Keighley News in the early 1980s. They cover all sorts of topics such as local sporting fixtures, weddings, shows and galas, theatre productions, politics and charity events. The History Society will spend the next few months scanning the negatives and releasing them on Flickr on a month-by-month basis.
The negatives came in small envelopes with some basic labelling and a date, but the History Society is hoping people will get in touch and tell us more about the stories behind the pictures.
The first proper album is available to browse now and has photographs from forty years ago – taken in August 1981.
Back to the Eighties
The History Society has recently procured a lot of ex-Keighley News negatives (and we mean a LOT!) from the early 1980s. This photograph of Ingrow St John’s Junior Cricket Team was taken forty years ago on 2nd August 1981. It will take us quite a while to scan and label all the negatives but keep an eye on our Flickr page for more.
Stan the Musical
The musical ‘Stan’, was first performed at Keighley Playhouse, Devonshire Street, on Monday, 19th July 1976. The musical had been inspired by an exhibition called “1920’s Boy” at Cliffe Castle in 1973. It received coverage on ITV’s ‘Calendar’ local news programme, and the BBC’s lunchtime programme ‘Pebble Mill at One’. After the July run it was revived at the Playhouse in October 1976.
The songs from the musical ‘Stan’ were recorded and an LP was produced by Calrec Audio Ltd. of Hebden Bridge. Copies were available for £3. The recording was engineered by John Trenouth and was mixed by John Butterfield and Tim Whitley. The photograph shows the front and back of the LP sleeve.
The exhibition that inspired the musical was a showcase for the paintings of Keighley artist Stanley R. Boardman. In the late 1960s/early 1970s Boardman began painting depictions of his memories of growing up in Keighley in the 1920s. Encouraged by local historian Ian Dewhirst, the paintings were put on display to much acclaim at Cliffe Castle in 1973.
The musical was written and produced by Michael Ford, with songs by Ford and Allan Greenwood. The show was an HYT (originally Holycroft Youth Theatre) production. HYT started out as Holycroft School’s theatre group, but soon broke away and recruited young people from across Keighley. ‘Stan’ was their first production and the theatre group ran into the 2000s. The group became renowned for staging original productions devised by the young cast in workshops. Musical accompaniment for this show was by Tim Whitley, John Trenouth and friends, Stanley Bishop provided cinema piano music, Pete Hey and Stan Boardman himself devised the props, and Ian Dewhirst acted as historical advisor.
The item belongs to Neville Whittingham. It was brought along to a talk on Stanley R. Boardman given by History Society member Tim Neal at Silsden Local History Group on 26th February 2018. The item was photographed by Tim Neal and permission was given to include the photograph on the History Society’s Flickr account.
Guest-speaker in July
This month’s guest speaker talk on Zoom will be given by Steve Bown. His talk is entitled “Keighley MPs: Millmen, Offcumdens and Swing” and is happening on Wednesday 14th July. This meeting is exclusively for members who have paid to join the History Society. If you would like to know how to become a member please drop us a line in the comments. Members will receive their invites on how to join the meeting via email a few days before the talk.
The ‘doors’ will open at 7pm but the talk won’t start until around 7.30pm. This is to give people the chance to log in to the meeting and for updates on Society news.
Future talks for the rest of the year include Tish Lawson on “Sideshows, Fairs and Exhibitions in Victorian Times”, Eddie Kelly on “North Street and beyond as seen through the lens of Wilfred Moore”, and an Ian Dewhirst presentation from the archives.
