Tag: History

Keighley Walking Festival 2025

Keighley Walking Festival 2025 launches this Saturday (13th September) and amongst the dozens of walks on offer, there are several with a history-focus that might be of interest. For more information pick up the festival booklet (available in the Civic Centre, Library and other public venues) or check out the Town Council website.

Saturday 13th September – Joyce and Melissa from the History Society are leading a town centre walk looking at some of the landmarks and how they have changed over the centuries. Starts at 1.45pm from the war memorial in Town Hall Square.

Sunday 14th September – Andy Wade from the Men of Worth Project is leading a walk up to the Wellington Bomber Crash Site above Oakworth. Starts at 12.30pm from the Golden Fleece Pub in Oakworth.

Sunday 14th and Wednesday 17th September – Andrew Heaton and Jean Sugden from the Dockroyd Graveyard Trust are giving a guided tour of the Graveyard, focussing on the headstones. Meet at Dockroyd Graveyard in Oakworth at 3pm (Sunday) or 6.30pm (Wednesday).

Monday 15th September – David Earnshaw and Joyce Newton from Keighley Civic Society are exploring the legacy of George Hattersley. Start at Towngate (near the Bus Station) at 10.30am.

Sunday 21st September – Andy Wade from the Men of Worth Project is leading a history walk around Holden Park in Oakworth. Start at the park entrance at 12.30pm.

Tuesday 23rd September – Tim and Steve from the History Society are leading an illustrated talk along a short stretch of the Leeds-Liverpool canal, reflecting on its history. Start at East Riddlesden Hall (in front of the barn) at 10.30am.

Wednesday 24th September – David Earnshaw and Joyce Newton from Keighley Civic Society are exploring the town’s transport heritage. Start at Towngate (near the Bus Station) at 10.30am.

Please support this terrific local initiative.

In from the cold…

A massive thank you to Philippa McHugh who delivered an engaging and informative talk last night on how the glaciers, lakes and rivers affected, and were affected by, the local landscape during the last ice age 18,000 years ago. Thanks also to Alan Pearson who pulled most of the imagery and information together and was in the audience. Huge thanks too to the record number of society members and visitors who attended in person or on Zoom.

The talk was part of the History Society’s monthly meeting, in the Civic Centre on North Street, held on Wednesday 10th September 2025. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 8th October and will include a talk by Pam Brook and Helen Farrar on “Parachutes, Escape Maps and Wedding Dresses: Keighley Silk and Artificial Silk Weavers’ Contribution to the War Effort”.

New albums on Flickr

We’ve just uploaded a couple of new albums of images to our Flickr site.

The first is an eclectic collection of postcards, tickets and other ephemera, covering Keighley, Oakworth, Silsden, Haworth and the area, between the 1860s and the 1960s. Have a browse!

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The second is a collection of photographs of classes from local schools from the 1940s and 1950s. Anyone you recognise?

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This week’s meeting in news…

Great coverage for Wednesday’s History Society meeting in this week’s Keighley News. The talk is about how the Ice Age influenced, and was influenced by, the local landscape, to be given by Philippa McHugh and Alan Pearson. The meeting is on Wednesday 10th September 2025 at 7.15pm in the Civic Centre on North Street. All welcome.

September’s Meeting

This month’s History Society meeting includes a talk by History Society members Philippa McHugh and Alan Pearson, who take us on a journey through the local area during the most recent ice age. Discover which areas the ice covered, where the lakes formed and the rivers flowed, and the evidence it has left behind.

And why not go see the ‘Ice Age Art Now’ exhibition at Cliffe Castle Museum (on until 14th September) as a “warm up” for this talk?

The History Society meeting is on Wednesday 10th September 2025 and will be held in the Main Hall, upstairs in Keighley Civic Centre. Doors open at 7.15pm. There is a lift to access the first floor. Entry is free to History Society members and is £3.50 to anyone else (pay on the door – cash only) – 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. If you join at this meeting you will get membership for the rest of this year and all of 2026 (cash only please).

Article on next week’s meeting

Great coverage of next week’s History Society meeting in this week’s Keighley News. The meeting focusses on largely-forgotten crime writer Austin Lee, who was born in Cowling and educated at Keighley Boys Grammar School. During the 1950s and 1960s he published various whodunnit novels, many featuring amateur detective Miss Flora Hogg (including ‘Miss Hogg and the Bronte Murders’, with some very evocative descriptions of Haworth in the 1950s).

Speakers will be writer and journalist Sharon Wright, Bronte Parsonage Principal Curator Ann Dinsdale, and History Society committee member Tim Neal, talking about how they became converts to Lee’s cause. There will also be a small display about Austin Lee, courtesy of Keighley Local Studies Library.

The meeting is on Wednesday 13th August 2025, at 7.15pm in the Keighley Civic Centre on North Street. All are welcome to come along. Entry is £3.50 or free to History Society members. History Society members can also join the meeting via Zoom if they prefer. The meeting ends around 8.45pm.

Austin in August

This month’s History Society meeting is on Wednesday 13th August, upstairs in the Civic Centre on North Street at 7.15pm. The subject of the talk is ‘Austin Lee: Man of Mystery’. Austin Lee was born in Cowling and attended Keighley Boys’ Grammar School, and went on to have multiple careers including being an outspoken vicar, a barman, a teacher and the author of a series of cosy-crime novels featuring amateur sleuth Miss Flora Hogg. It’s a bit of team effort this time, with speakers Sharon Wright, Ann Dinsdale and Tim Neal, all of whom are keen to resurrect the profile of this most astonishing Keighley man.

Doors open at 7.15pm at the Civic Centre. All are welcome. Entry is free for History Society members and £3.50 for anyone else. Keighley Local Studies Library have copies of many of Austin’s books if anyone fancies reading them.

Summer reading…

August’s History Society meeting (on 13th August 2025) explores the life and works of vicar and crime novelist Austin Lee. If you fancy any summer reading in advance of the meeting, plenty of Austin’s books are available in Keighley Local Studies Library (just ask at the desk) – including some he wrote under his pen names of Julian Callender or John Austwick. We recommend ‘Murder in the Borough Library’ – set in a library inspired by Keighley’s own library (which is where Austin wrote it!).

A selection of books by Austin Lee, available to read in Keighley Local Studies Library. Photos: Tim Neal.

Roman Army Life Talk

A big thank you to John and Mary Hindle from the Roman reenactment group The Tungrians, who spoke to the History Society last night. They also brought examples of costume and armour along. They have their own website and Facebook page if you want the chance to see more of them and their reenactments. And a thank you to the society members and guests who joined us in the Civic Centre or on Zoom. Photographs by Tim Neal and Anne-Marie Dewhirst.

John and Mary of the Tungrians talk to the History Society in July 2025.

August’s talk will be a bit of a team effort, as we look back at the work and life of whodunnit author and vicar, the Reverend Austin Lee. Born in Keighley, with his murder-mystery novels often set in recognisable locations, Lee was a popular writer in the 1950s, and whose own story is full of twists and turns.