Category: News

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.

Guest Speaker Talk

Our first History Society meeting of 2020 is this Wednesday (8th January). Retired university lecturer and curator of the website NotJustHockney.info, Colin Neville will present his talk on seven locally-based but nationally-acclaimed artists. He will also be selling copies of his tie-in book (£5 each, all proceeds to the upkeep of Silsden Town Hall).

History Society guest speaker talks take place upstairs at Keighley Library. Doors open at 7pm and the meetings start at 7.30pm. There is a lift available for those who need it. Tea and coffee is served. Admission is open to all and it costs £3 (£1 for History Society members).

You can support the work done by the History Society by becoming a member at one of our meetings. Membership costs £10 (£15 for a couple) and goes to supporting the work that we do plus gives reduced admission to our meetings and the opportunity to take part in members-only activities.

Guest speaker Colin Neville, with his book on Past Silsden Artists. Photograph courtesy of the speaker.

New Newsletter

The latest History Society newsletter is now available. It covers the monthly meetings for January to March and reveals some of the plans for the History Society in the year ahead. If anyone wants to join the History Society and support what we do plus have access to members-only events please come along to any monthly meeting or see the support-us section of this website.

KDLHS Newsletter 17 (Jan-Mar 2020)

Apology

The History Society would like to offer an apology for the sound difficulties in tonight’s talk (Ian Dewhirst: Keighley Christmases in the Past). It didn’t do Ian justice (although, as someone pointed out, he didn’t have a very high opinion of IT himself so would possibly have been amused by the shenanigans). Anyone who attended the talk is welcome to attend any one of 2020’s talks free of charge. Just let Sarah on the desk know on the evening. We hope those who stayed and huddled around the projector finally got to enjoy the talk. We will post the talk on our Flickr page this weekend for those who could not stay. Our apologies again, and we hope you have an enjoyable time over the Christmas period.