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The 1st of April often marks the start of a new financial year. The History Society has in its collection the Annual Report of the Chief Librarian for the year 1st April 1948 to 31st March 1949. The Chief Librarian at this time was Fred Taylor. The report was published on behalf of the Borough of Keighley Libraries and Museum Committee, headed by the Mayor of Keighley, Alderman J. H. Wright.

At this stage the town’s library services covered the Central Library on North Street, the Children’s Library, and branch libraries at Haworth, Morton, Oakworth, Oldfield, Oxenhope, Riddlesden and Stanbury. Across all the libraries, almost 82,000 books were available to browse and borrow. There were nearly 535,000 books loaned to readers over the year.

One of the most in demand titles over the year was Winston Churchill’s account “The Second World War, Volume 1: The Gathering Storm”, published in 1948 and the first instalment in what was ultimately a six-volume series. Other popular titles included World War Two personal histories “Winged Dagger” by SAS Commander Roy Farran and “The Wooden Horse” by prisoner of war Eric Williams.

The outside of the Central Library was given a fresh lick of paint and fluorescent lighting was installed internally. Another key event of the year was the re-establishment of a children’s library, that section having been closed in 1943. The full report can be found on the History Society’s Flickr site.

The images show a portrait of Chief Librarian Fred Taylor, a picture of the Library from a 1950s Lilywhite postcard, and the cover of the Annual Report. All of the images come from the John Normington Collection, donated to Keighley and District Local History Society by John’s daughter Liz Hornby in September 2021.

John attended Ingrow Primary School and later won a scholarship for Keighley Boys’ Grammar School. His first job was at Keighley Library, where he remained (except for a break for National Service in 1947-49) until taking early retirement in March 1984. He was made Chief Assistant (Deputy) in 1953 having studied at the Leeds School of Librarianship. He ultimately became a lecturer himself in Cataloguing and Classification. He worked alongside local historian Ian Dewhirst for many years.

Illustrations of the first Co-Op shop on Church Green, Keighley, by Thomas Heaps, drawn in 1910 from memory, and of the second Co-Op store on New Bridge Street, that operated from March 1862 to 1896. The shop in which the Keighley Industrial Co-operative Society began its business life was one of a block of three in Church Green between the Commercial Inn and the Devonshire Hotel. The shop was run by John Farrar Pickles, Benjamin Morrell and Joseph Moorhouse (Society Treasurer). Customers had to ascend two or three steps on entering the shop. The shop was originally occupied by Mr Cockshott, who remained as landlord of the site. The shop opened in October/November 1860. The original shop closed in March 1862 when Cockshott wanted to change the details of the rent, and the shop relocated to premises on New Bridge Street.

Illustrations taken from ‘Half a Century of Co-operation in Keighley – 1860-1910’ by Joseph Rhodes (Fellow of the Institute of Journalists and of the British Esperanto Association). Published by the Keighley Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd. and printed by the Co-operative Wholesale Society Limited, Hamilton Road, Longsight, Manchester in 1911. Copies of the book are held in the History Society’s physical archive. The contemporary photograph of Church Street was taken by Tim Neal in 2019.

Thank you to everyone who joined our talk on Lily Cove on Wednesday evening – either in person (for the first time since March 2020) or on Zoom. It was a terrific talk by Sharon Wright. Thanks also to Wave of Nostalgia bookshop in Haworth and to Graham Mitchell.

This illustration of the proposed entrance gateway and lodge for Cliffe Castle appeared in The Architect magazine of 8th March 1879. The architect behind the design was George Smith of Bradford. It shows two elevations and the plans of the ground floor and chamber. Cliffe Castle at the time was the home of Henry Isaac Butterfield, it had only just been renamed Cliffe Castle having been Cliffe Hall up until 1878. The completed gateway and lodge was an adaptation of these initial plans.

The accompanying caption in The Architect reads: “The lodge and gate shown in the illustration are proposed to be erected on Skipton Road, Keighley, on Mr. H. J. Butterfield’s property. The cost will be about £2,000. Mr. George Smith, of Bradford, is the architect.”

The original document is held in the physical archive of Keighley and District Local History Society. Alongside the plan is a photographic postcard of the entrance published by Lilywhite Ltd. of Triangle in around 1920. 

Keighley Bus Museum is having an open day today.

The next History Society is Wednesday 9th March evening and will be held in person at the Civic Centre this month for the first time since Covid. The talk is by author Sharon Wright and is on the tragic tale of Lily Cove the lady balloonist. Sharon will also be selling her books on the night. Sharon is also the author of the Mother of the Brontes if any of you were lucky enough to catch her talk on the subject a couple of years ago.

Non-members are welcome to attend for a fee of £3.00 per person (payable on the door) but places must be booked in advance as we are keeping an eye on numbers to ensure people can socially distance comfortably in they wish. Unfortunately if you don’t email to book we can’t guarantee a place on the night. To reserve a place, please email klyhistory@yahoo.com

We will be encouraging the wearing of masks and maintaining a social distance by spacing the chairs out at the venue. The meeting opens at 7pm for a 7:30pm start. Please don’t arrive before 7pm as the doors will not open until then. Please note that we won’t be serving tea/coffee but you are welcome to bring a flask!

Next Wednesday (9th February), Graham Mitchell will be giving his talk “Catholic Revival, St Anne’s and the Amazing Father Russell” to the History Society on Zoom. The meeting is for History Society members only. Members will receive their invitation via email in the next few days.

If you are interested in joining the History Society, membership costs £11.50 (£10+£1.50 admin charge) and you can join via GenFair. Click here.

Over 400 images from our Keighley News Archive have been published on our Flickr site. The photographs were all taken by a Keighley News photographer forty years ago in January 1982.

Prolific local author Halliwell Sutcliffe died ninety years ago today on 14th January 1932. He wrote over 40 books between the 1890s and 1930s. Many of his novels are historical romantic dramas set in the Yorkshire Dales (including a series set in Haworth, renamed as the fictional Marshcotes). He was born in Thackley in April 1870. At the time the family was living at Cross Roads, but then moved to Bingley. He was educated at Bingley Grammar School (where his father was headmaster) then at King’s College, Cambridge, where he read mathematics. He married Mabel Cottrell of Twickenham in 1904, they had two sons, and lived in Embsay then Linton-in-Craven. It was here that Sutcliffe died in January 1932, aged 61. He was passionate about the outdoors, becoming the first president of the West Riding Ramblers’ Federation, and his ashes were scattered on his beloved moors.

The covers are from books owned by History Society member Tim Neal and the portrait is by Ernest Moore (1865–1940), (c) Grassington Folk Museum.

The History Society’s first members’ meeting of 2022 will be on Wednesday 12th January. The guest speaker is Alan Reynolds who will be talking about his historical novel ‘The Baker’s Story’ set in a fictional West Yorkshire town that was based on Keighley. You can read more about Alan and the novel at alanreynoldsauthor.com

The meeting will be on Zoom and ‘doors open’ at 7pm with the talk starting at 7.30pm. History Society members will receive their invitation to the meeting via email a few days before the event. If you are interested in joining the History Society please get in touch or comment below.