Handbell History Event

This Saturday (1st March 2025) from 2pm, Cliffe Castle is hosting a talk on the history of handbell ringing, with demonstration and the opportunity to take part, as part of the Season of Music organised by the Cliffe Castle Support Group.

“In the late 19th and early 20th centuries tune ringing on hand bells was extremely popular across the industrial towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Teams played with large sets of bells, often upwards of 150 bells per team.”

To book a free place, ring 01535 618231 or email cliffe.castle@bradford.gov.uk or call to the museum and book in person.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1246402799782790

Talk on The Workhouse

Jude Rhodes is giving her next talk in Keighley Local Studies Library (upstairs in the main library) on Saturday 22nd February (2.30pm to 4.30pm). This time it is on The Workhouse. Jude’s talks are always thoroughly researched and informative, so well worth going along to.

Please note, this is a Local Studies Library event, so if you have any questions please contact the library.

February’s History Society Meeting

February’s History Society meeting is next Wednesday (12th February 2025) . The guest speaker is History Society member Graham Mitchell examining the new evidence that both Boys from the Tower were alive after the death of their uncle, King Richard III. [The background image is a detail from ‘The Princes in the Tower’ by John Everett Millais (1878), courtesy of the Royal Holloway Picture Gallery.]

The meeting will be held in the Local Studies Library, upstairs in Keighley Library. Doors open at 7.15pm (please use the Albert Street entrance if arriving at the Library after 7pm). There is a lift to access the first floor. Entry is free to History Society members and is £3.50 to anyone else – all are welcome to attend. The meeting is scheduled to finish around 8.45pm. Members of the History Society also have the option of joining the meeting online via Zoom.

Membership of the History Society costs £15 for the calendar year. You can join at any of our meetings in the Library (cash only please) or online via the society’s website.

Hospital Bazaar Handbook from 1923

This album has just ‘gone live’ on our Flickr site. It’s a 92-page handbook for a 1923 Grand Bazaar held in aid of Victoria Hospital (which at that time ran on voluntary funding). It features a history and photographs of the hospital, details of the stalls and entertainments that made up the five-day bazaar, and adverts for dozens of local businesses. It forms a fantastic window into life in Keighley over 100 years ago.

KHS_P_758_ (1)

Mechanics’ Institute Event @ Library

Keighley Local Studies Library have been in touch with a date for your diaries for the end of January…

“We have an event on Saturday, 25th January that I am sure some of your members would be very interested in. The morning is a one place study of the Mechanics’ Institute with Jude Rhodes, we shall be getting out plans, photographs and other archives out for this in the morning. In the afternoon we have the book launch of Colin Neville’s Keighley School of Art and a talk by him about the Mechanics’ Institute, the art school and its artists.”

Please contact the team in the Local Studies Library if you want any further details.

First Meeting of 2025

Happy New Year, everyone!

Our first History Society meeting of 2025 will be family and local historian Jude Rhodes looking at back-to-back housing as a solution to the rapid population growth during the Industrial Revolution which led to disease in poor social classes, but were all back-to-back housing areas of slums?

This is a HISTORY SOCIETY MEMBERS ONLY meeting, which will be held on Zoom (not in the Library). Details on how to join in on Zoom will be sent out via email a few days in advance of the meeting.

Christmas & Birthday Meeting

Terrific spread in the Keighley News for our upcoming Christmas meeting, upstairs in the Library on Wednesday 11th December 2024. This year we are not just marking the festive season but we will also be celebrating our 20th birthday.

There is the chance to look through some of the donations made throughout the year, a look back at Christmas in Keighley in 1964, a quiz, and of course cake and tea and coffee. There is also the chance to take out society membership for 2025.

The meeting is open to all. We meet upstairs in the Local Studies Library from 7.15pm (please use the Albert Street entrance if arriving after 7pm). Entry is free to History Society members or £3.50 for anyone else. The meeting finishes around 8.45pm.