A reminder that July’s History Society meeting (on Wednesday 9th July) features a presentation from John Hindle on the Tungrians (a living history group portraying Roman soldiers and civilians of the second century in Britannia). John’s presentation will be in costume and will include various reproduction tools and weapons for people to look at.
The meeting will be held upstairs in the Civic Centre on North Street in Keighley, from 7.15pm on Wednesday 9th July. Anyone is welcome to come along. Admission is £3.50 (free to History Society members). Society members can choose to join in via Zoom if they wish (but if you can make it along then we recommend doing so).
We’d like to say a massive thank you to Ann Dinsdale and the team at the Bronte Parsonage Museum for making us feel so welcome during our exclusive visit last Friday (20th June 2025). Nineteen members of the society went on the visit, and we were given free rein to explore the museum (with the incredibly knowledgeable and friendly staff on hand to answer all sorts of questions), look around the temporary exhibition ‘From Haworth to Eternity’, and we got to see some rare, moving, exciting and recently acquired items in the collection that don’t often see the light of day, brought out by Ann in the museum’s collections library. All that and a glass of bubbly too!
A massive thank you to Heather Millard, Community Curator for Bradford and District Museums and Galleries, who addressed the History Society’s monthly meeting on Wednesday 11th June 2025. The meeting took place in the Main Hall of Keighley Civic Centre and the subject was “The Stained Glass Windows of Cliffe Castle”.
Heather gave some background on how the Butterfield family created Cliffe Castle on the bones of what had been Cliffe Hall, with showy highlights like the “Butterfield Window”, an enormous stained glass artwork at the top of the main stairs, plus the examples held in the stained glass gallery in the museum. A big thank you too to the dozens of people who came along, in person or on Zoom, to enjoy the fascinating talk.
Our next meeting is Wednesday 9th July when the guest speaker will be John Hindle, talking about “Roman Army Life in West Yorkshire”.
Be like Princess Anne, and check out the stereoscopic (3D) images of Keighley from over 120 years ago as part of the members-only session at Keighley Local Studies Library next Saturday (31st May 2025 10am-1pm). [We don’t actually know if HRH is looking at pictures of Keighley – but you could be if you come along!] £2 per person. Please let Tim know if you are thinking of coming.
A huge thank you to Colin Neville, curator of the Not Just Hockney website, for his talk last night on local painter and sculptor George Demaine. It was fascinating and thought-provoking, and the perfect opportunity to appreciate the work of this artist. Over thirty society members and guests enjoyed the talk, in person at the Civic Centre and over Zoom.
Next month’s talk is Heather Millard on the stained-glass of Cliffe Castle, upstairs in the Civic Centre on Wednesday 11th June 2025.
Great article in this week’s Keighley News, promoting our next meeting which will include a talk by art historian Colin Neville on artist and sculptor George Demaine. The meeting is on Wednesday 14th May, at 7.15pm in Keighley Civic Centre. All welcome (free to History Society members and £3.50 for non-members, pay on the door).
The next History Society meeting is Wednesday 14th May 2025, starting at 7.15pm, upstairs in the Civic Centre on North Street, Keighley. The guest speaker will be Colin Neville, curator of the Not Just Hockney website about artists from the local area. His talk is entitled “The Courage of His Convictions” and focusses on artist and sculptor George Demaine (1892-1966), who grew up living on Malsis Crescent in Keighley. He studied at Keighley College of Art and then at the Royal College of Art in London. He was a committed Wesleyan Methodist and when he was called up to serve in the First World War he objected and claimed exemption on the grounds of his religious beliefs.
Colin says: “George Demaine, and thousands of conscientious objectors like him, demonstrated a different type of courage to the men and women who served during the Great War, that is the courage of their long-held religious or political convictions not to take the life of another and particularly in a war. It was a courage to stand by these principles in the face of often savage public reaction, military bullying, and harsh periods of imprisonment with hard labour.”
George was imprisoned for three years with hard labour for his refusal to serve in the armed forces or undertake any war related work. The talk illustrates George’s life and work: from art student locally, to his imprisonment, and how he forged a career for himself in the post-war years.
There will also be the opportunity to buy copies of Colin’s different publications on local artists. These usually cost between £5 and £10. Please bring cash if intending to buy.
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.
This is an event that might be of interest, co-organised by writer and friend-to-the-History-Society Sharon Wright. The Bronte Day Retreat is taking place on Saturday 10th May 2025 over in Thornton. More details on the poster or visit the website www.emmaliveyoga.com
Some of you may have seen the tribute to the late Elsie Scott in this week’s Keighley News. Elsie, who was born Elsie Greenwell, was renowned in the town for her skills as a dancer, performer, choreographer and dance teacher. We have just published the programme for the 1968 Amateurs production of ‘West Side Story’ on our Flickr site.
Elsie acted as choreographer on this show and was singled out in the opening paragraph of the Keighley News’ review, remarking on how she coped with the remarkably limited space on stage in the Ritz cinema. Reviewer Allan Robinson wrote: “To my mind, choreographer Elsie Scott was the ‘star’ of Keighley Amateurs’ opening presentation on Wednesday night for the marvellous job she did in such cramped conditions.”
Andy Wade, from the Men of Worth Project, gave an excellent talk to History Society members and guests at the Civic Centre on Wednesday evening. His talk was entitled “Keighley’s Roll of Honour Centenary” and covered the origin of the War Memorial in Town Hall Square, and the town’s original Roll of Honour book containing almost 1,000 names of the men from Keighley killed during the First World War, and brought the story up to date with how over 100 additional names have been uncovered and are recorded in a new additional book. Huge thanks to Andy.
Next month’s talk will be Colin Neville on Keighley-born artist George Demaine, on 14th May 2025.
