Tag: Speakers Meeting

Meeting in the Paper

Great coverage in this week’s Keighley News of next week’s History Society meeting (on Wednesday 8th October). The meeting will feature a talk by textile experts Pam Brook and Helen Farrar on the work of various local firms who specialised in silk and artificial silk weaving, and how the output of these firms contributed to the war effort during the Second World War.

The meeting starts at 7.15pm in the Civic Centre on North Street (and will finish around 8.45pm). Anyone is welcome to attend. Entry is £3.50 (free to History Society members – History Society members can also join via Zoom). The meeting is in the main hall on the first floor and there is a lift for those who need it.

If you wish to join the History Society, membership costs £15 for the calendar year, and taking out membership this month gets you the rest of 2025 plus all of 2026.

Butchers in the Library

A massive thank you to Karl-Heinz Wustner who spoke to the History Society at the Local Studies Library yesterday (Wednesday 1st October). His talk was entitled ‘Meeting the Meat Demand’ and told the story of how many German families came over to Keighley and West Yorkshire in the 19th century and successfully set themselves up as pork butchers in the town.

Over forty society members and visitors were present in the Library, several being the descendants of these families. The event was a great success, and our thanks to the staff of the Library who made us so welcome.

The History Society’s next talk is ‘Parachutes, Escape Maps and Wedding Dresses’, on artificial silk weaving in the area, to be given by textile experts Pam Brook and Helen Farrar on Wednesday 8th October at 7.15pm in the Civic Centre on North Street.

October’s Society Meeting

October’s History Society meeting is on Wednesday 8th October 2025 and will include the talk “Parachutes, Escape Maps, and Wedding Dresses: Keighley Weavers’ Contribution to the War Effort”.

Silsden was recognised as a major contributor to the silk and artificial silk industry through companies such as Driver Brothers, John Knox and others. In Keighley, Driver, Hartley & Co. Ltd. were also at the front of experimental weaving with silk and artificial silk. In 1937 they started manufacturing fabrics for parachutes and later, escape maps for commandos. Textile experts Pam Brook and Helen Farrar will discuss the areas’ expertise in the manufacture of silk, in particular artificial silk, and its contribution to the war effort.

The meeting 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. You can join at any of our meetings in the Library (cash only please) or online via the society’s website. If you join at this meeting you get membership for the remainder of 2025 plus all of 2026.

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”.

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.