News – KEIGHLEY & DISTRICT LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

History Society tour of the town centre on Church Street, August 2021.

History Society tour of the town centre on Bridge Street, August 2021.

History Society tour of the town centre in Town Hall Square, August 2021. Photograph: Steve Bown.

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.

August’s Zoom Meeting

This month’s guest speaker talk on Zoom is a Virtual Walk around Keighley Town Centre, illustrated by photographs, maps and vintage images of the town. It is happening on Wednesday 11th August.

The event is for History Society members only but you can join the History Society by going to our website. Members should already have received their email with details on how to join the meeting on Zoom.

‘Doors’ open at 7pm, with the usual History Society update at 7.15pm and the talk itself starts at 7.30pm.