History – Page 6 – KEIGHLEY & DISTRICT LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY

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.

Keighley Handbook, 1960

Just added to our Flickr archive are these scans of the pages of a Keighley Handbook from 1960. It features a history of the town and dozens of adverts from local businesses of the time. The handbook was loaned to the History Society for scanning by Joyce Newton. Click below to take a look.

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. #

Airedale Shopping Centre Gets a New Roof

Remember the Airedale Shopping Centre in Keighley before it had a roof? These photographs from the History Society’s archive show the shopping centre in the second half of the 1980s – before roof, during roof construction and all shiny and new!

10,000+ Images

We now have over 10,000 images available to view on our Flickr website. This album is the most recent addition, featuring adverts from a 1915 edition of the Wool Year Book. The book belonged to Willie Pickles of Malsis Road who used to work at Robert Clough’s. It was donated to the History Society by his daughter Janet Bastow in January this year.

1966 Handbook

https://www.facebook.com/keighleyhistorysociety/videos/2475746915972761/

A short silent video that flicks through the pages of a Keighley Corporation handbook from 1966.

Ian Dewhirst Christmas Talk

An audio-only recording of a Christmas talk given by the late Ian Dewhirst in 2005 is now available to listen to on our Facebook page. Click below to hear the talk, accompanied by images from the History Society digital archive.

https://www.facebook.com/keighleyhistorysociety/videos/987564374944722/

Ian Dewhirst Christmas Talk

Local landmark in advert

A nice little curio – an advert for Nugget boot polish featuring East Riddlesden Hall. The newspaper is unknown but the advert appears to be from around the 1940s.

Advert from the History Society’s archive. Donated by Tim Neal in December 2019.

From Stables to Beer Garden

The building on North Street in Keighley is undergoing a transformation at the minute as it becomes a beer garden for the Wetherspoon’s pub next door. It was erected as the Town Hall Livery Stables in the early 1890s, before becoming the Regent Picture House in 1920. It then became the Star Bingo & Social Club from 1964 to 1976. The premises reopened during 1980 as the Orbit DIY store then after further closure it returned as Champers Night Club upstairs and Charolais Steak House on the ground floor. The building’s final incarnation was as Last Orders which closed in 2015. In August 2019 the entire building was demolished except for the front wall overlooking North Street. With thanks to Eddie Kelly, David Seeley and Tim Neal.