June 2025 Meeting

The History Society’s next meeting will be held in the main hall of Keighley Civic Centre on Wednesday 11th June. The guest speaker will be Heather Millard, Community Curator for Bradford District Museums and Galleries. Her talk is entitled “The Stained Glass of Cliffe Castle”. It will cover the glass original to the house, the ones that are missing, those brought into the museum collections, and the ones that have been restored.

Heather says: “When you visit Cliffe Castle, one of the key features that you can’t miss is the Stained Glass on display. Spanning several centuries, the glass on display tells many stories – from the spectacular Butterfield Window, seen on the Grand Staircase – the pared back early 20th Glass by Hugh Arthur Kennedy, or the Pre-Raphaelite glass by Morris and Co featuring pieces by Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Morris and more. My talk delves in the stories behind the windows and explores some of the fascinating histories behind what you now see.”

The History Society’s monthly meetings are on the second Wednesday of each month. Our meetings are held upstairs in the main hall of Keighley Civic Centre on North Street. There is a lift at the front of the building and one inside for anyone who needs it. Doors will open at 7.15pm, and the meeting starts at around 7.20pm. We finish around 8.30pm. Anyone is welcome to attend the meeting. Entry costs £3.50 (or free if you are a history society member). History Society members also have the option of joining the meeting via Zoom.

New members are always welcome to come along. You can join the society at any of our meetings. Membership costs £15 for the calendar year or £20 for a couple living at the same address. As well as the monthly guest speakers there are also members-only events such as a forthcoming behind-the-scenes visit to the Bronte Parsonage Museum. Details of the society’s meetings and events can be picked up at any of their meetings or from the Local Studies Library desk.

A Mill in Sutton…

A selection of images from the promotional booklet for T. & M. Bairstow, Worsted Spinners & Manufacturers of Sutton Mills in Crosshills. The 36-page brochure was designed, photographed and printed by Percy Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd. of Bradford and London in June 1920.

The firm was founded in 1838 by Thomas and Matthew Bairstow, whose family owned the land upon which Sutton Mills were built. In 1920, the mills contained around 450 looms and 20,000 spinning and twisting spindles, employing around 700 people. The entire process of manufacturing, with the exception of dyeing and finishing, was carried out at the mill, using wool brought in from Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the mills, the firm also provided a hostel for up to fifty female mill employees, and an institute that included reading room, billiard room and swimming bath.

According to the entry on the Yorkshire Industrial Heritage website, the firm ceased trading around 1970 with a nursing home and housing now standing on the site of the mill (only one of the original mill buildings remains).

The brochure is part of the Joy Rundle Collection, donated by Julie Eaman and Mark Rundle in 2023. Researched and collated by Tim Neal. The full brochure can be viewed below:

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Fleece Mills Co. Ltd.

The Fleece Mills Co. Ltd. managed the mills, shops and houses in the wedge of land between Cavendish Street and East Parade (pretty much the area where the Cavendish Retail Park is now). Sixty years ago this booklet was produced talking about the Sugden family who had owned the land and about the parent company Charles Hanson & Co. View the booklet in its entirety by clicking on the image below.

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Membership Offer

Become a member of the History Society now and get membership for the whole of 2022 on top!

Being a paid-up member of the History Society means…
* being able to join the monthly meetings where we have guest-speakers talking on a wide-range of subjects. At the minute these talks are on Zoom, but we are planning to resume meeting at Keighley Library or other town centre venues in 2022 (while still making the talks available to our members who live further afield).
* receiving the quarterly digital newsletter, which now runs to at least 12 pages with articles on the town and surrounding area’s history as well as History Society news (we also welcome contributions from members).
* being able to attend any exclusive visits we may arrange (previous visits have included Dalton Mills, Keighley Bus Museum and Bridgehouse Mills).
* having a say on how the History Society is run at our Annual General Meeting, or even joining the committee to help us run things. Volunteering with the History Society might include helping us have a presence at events like the Keighley Show.

Membership at the minute costs £11.50 (this includes an admin fee) and covers a full year from January to December. Because we are not currently meeting face-to-face this has to be bought via our online payment service (click here to see details).

Because we are nearing the end of 2021, if you buy your membership now we will throw in the whole of membership for 2022 on top! That means you get access to the meetings in October, November and December this year plus all the meetings in 2022.

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.

A view of North Street, Keighley. Detail from a Lilywhite Ltd. postcard.

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.

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New Newsletter

We relaunched our newsletter earlier this year. It’s available exclusively to History Society members. The latest edition is due out this week – fourteen pages of articles and news. It should be in members’ email inboxes any day now!

The History Society’s October-December 2021 newsletter.

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.

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This month’s Zoom talk

A reminder that this month’s History Society talk is on “Sideshows, Fairs and Exhibitions in Victorian Times”, given by Tish Lawson. It is happening on Zoom (as are all our meetings until the start of 2022).

The talk is for History Society members only, who should receive their email with details on how to join in the next few days. If you want to join the History Society please see our website or make a comment below and we will be in touch.

‘Doors open’ for the Zoom meeting open at 7pm on Wednesday 8th September. There is an update on History Society business at 7.15 and the talk starts at 7.30pm. The talk usually lasts around one hour.

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.

An article about the History Society’s discovery of some 1980s press negatives, from the Keighley News of 19th August 2021.