Keighley is an old settlement, probably based around fords of the three rivers, the North Beck, the Worth and the Aire. Over the years it has changed from a small rural Market town through a thriving industrial boom town into the modern town we know today.
Historically there have been many strange spellings of the name and even more discussions on the pronunciation. However the locals pronounce it Keethley.
What is certain is that Keighley and some of the surrounding villages are mentioned in the Domesday Book(1086). They are mainly referred to as “wasted” with no households listed. This shows that the area suffered the “Harrying of the North”, or what we would call today ethnic cleansing, undertaken by the Normans,(1069/70) in their attempt to conquer the whole of England..
There are claims that the town had a Norman castle, probably a wooden ” Mott & Bailey”, but the site is unknown. Keighley has had a Parish Church since the 12c and received it’s Market Charter with Free Warren in 1305, while we were still on the very margin of the area raided by the Scots.
The area seems to have got off very lightly during the Reformation, Plague years and the Civil War. In fact there were a number of 17c date stones on old farm buildings in and around the town centre so the area seems to have been thriving at that point with a rural economy.
The Quakers, the Methodists and other Sects began to appear but the town stayed mainly the same until the coming of the canals, railways and the turnpike roads created the conditions for the Industrial Revolution and the vast population explosion that it brought.which in turn started the changes that made the town into the one that we know today.