Keighley library’s celebrations got underway in earnest on Saturday 30th November with a day full of events. Mr & Mrs Carnegie were here to help celebrate our libraries milestone and St Andrew’s Day was a fitting day to celebrate our Scottish benefactors generosity in giving the gift of £10,000 in 1899 for the building of Keighley Library, the first library in England he financed.
Just some of the photos from the day. All photographs supplied by Cath Muldowney Photography.
Our two wonderful cakes were generously supplied by the Keighley Lions.
Many guests signed the original visitors book from 1904.
Mr Philip Jackson and Charlie Bhowmick MBE
The cake was cut by our longest serving volunteer Mr Philip Jackson aged 99. Mr & Mrs Carnegie ( John Ibbotson, Irene Lofthouse ) also lent a hand cutting the cakes.
Children enjoyed making hats.
Tim Neal from Keighley & District Local History Society gave an excellent talk on the History of the Library.
Irene Lofthouse as Mrs Carnegie.
Library customers, staff and volunteers posed for a group photo.
KEIGHLEY’S revised Great War roll of honour was formally unveiled during an event at Keighley Local Studies Library on 9th November. The names of 102 servicemen and one woman who gave their lives during the First World War had been missed from the original roll.
The unveiling was performed by three-year-old Libby Griffiths, Ryan Firth, 16, and Liam Firth, 14. All three are descendants of Private Jowett Coulton, who was born in Keighley and lived in the town before emigrating to Canada, where he enlisted in the army. He was killed in action in France.
Libby Griffiths unveiling the Roll of Honour with Deputy Town Mayor Cllr Chris Herd and Andy Wade, of The Men of Worth.The signature page of the updated Roll with its 103 new names, signed by the parties involved in its creation. The Updated Roll of Honour on display upstairs in the Local Studies Library, Keighley Library.
The Men of Worth Project were awarded funding by the National Lottery’s Heritage Fund in early 2024 and this has been supported with funding from Keighley Town Council.
The purpose of the grant was to add more names to the Borough of Keighley Roll of Honour and to celebrate the centenary year of the original book and our wonderful Borough of Keighley War Memorial, which was unveiled in Keighley’s Town Hall Square on 7th December 1924, attended by several thousand people.
Lord Mayor of Bradford Councillor Bev Mullaney, Bradford Council Leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Director of the Men of Worth Project Andy Wade and Bradford Councillor Caroline Firth.
Other relatives of those honoured were present, together with guests including West Yorkshire Deputy Lieutenant David Pearson, MP Robbie Moore, Lord Mayor of Bradford Councillor Bev Mullaney, deputy town mayor Cllr Chris Herd, Bradford Council leader Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, district and town councillors and standard bearers.
Head of Libraries & Archives, Christine May talks about the libarary’s history with the Roll of honour. Andy Wade of The Men of Worth talks about the project. Irene Lofthouse portrays Frances Hildred Mitchell, the first woman to be added to the Roll.
Cultural historian Irene Lofthouse adopted the guise of Frances Hildred Mitchell – the first woman to be recognised in the roll alongside the men. Frances was a Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps worker she died aged just 23, from influenza and pneumonia while still nursing in military hospitals a year after the war had ended.
Deputy Town Mayor Councillor Chris Herd with Standard Bearers
The new Roll of Honour and the original Roll of Honour are on permanent display upstairs in Keighley Local Studies Library and an exhibition by The Men of Worth Project on all those added to the new Roll of Honour is on display until December the 6th 2024.
December the 7th marks the 100 year anniversary of the War Memorial and Roll of Honour, at noon, an interpretation plaque will be unveiled at the town’s war memorial. For more information about the project please see the link below.
The first of a series of talks on family and local history topics was launched on Wednesday, 23rd October in Keighley Local Studies Library with Jude Rhodes as speaker. Jude is an Associate of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA), specialising in Yorkshire history. She is “passionate about using local history with family history, this provides the exploration of who our ancestors were, why they lived in a particular place and how they were part of their community at a given time”.
The topic this time was Asylums, looking at their history, categories of patients, care provided and life in an asylum, followed by location and access to records. From the start the audience was advised that some of the terminology was difficult to hear and would never be used today but that these terms were mentioned to accurately depict the historical times and attitudes.
Jude began before Henry VIII and noted how monasteries and nunneries had been a support outside London which was the only place that actually had a hospital, Bethlem, later known as Bedlam. There were private “madhouses” but generally and for those of limited means, care for mental health would be entirely dependent on family and friends and this was the case under the old poor law, when the only alternative was the workhouse or prison. The Lunacy Act of 1845 under the new poor law stated that asylums, “Union Asylums”, had to be built but it wasn’t until the 1930s that asylums started to be called mental health institutes.
Historic categories were quite astonishing and could include: “refusal to pray”, “inability to feel pious”, “weeping”, “talking too much” (known as “excitement”) and even “hatred of spouse”. Syphilis was rife at this time, it ravaged the body but in time, the brain too and there were many innocents infected along the way. According to statistics, industrial areas, ports, the military and some mining towns were especially prone to the spread of this infection also known as “Ladies Disease” for women infected. Jude readily acknowledged the dangers of misdiagnosis in the past, with single pregnant women committed, menopausal women and those with post- natal depression, similarly those people with epilepsy or with bipolar and with dementia in old age. The early years after WW1 saw many former soldiers admitted with the effects of shell shock. It was also agreed during the discussion with the audience after the talk that many people in less supportive historical periods may have suffered circumstantial stress that if continuous had led to total breakdown in mental health.
However, Jude also pointed out the advances made at such as Wakefield’s Stanley Royd (1818-1995), formerly known as the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, that was one of the world’s most famous and active research institutions and led to global scientific changes in the treatment of the mentally ill. Its collection is held at Wakefield District Archives and there is a digital archive at www.wakefieldasylum.co.uk and an online tour at https://museumofthemind.org.uk . Similarly, Clifton in York (1847-1994), under the Medical Superintendent, Dr John Ivison Russell, pioneered in the field of occupational therapy. These larger institutions such as Menston (High Royds) were run as self-contained communities with their own farms, churches, cricket grounds and in Menston’s case, its own railway line connected to the Midland Railway to carry supplies, mainly coal for the boilers. Menston (1888-2003) site was 300 acres and opened with a capacity of 800 beds. There is a digital archive at www.highroydshospital.com and records are held at Wakefield District Archives.
Other local asylums include Scalebor Park, Burley in Wharfedale, a private asylum, and also with records at Wakefield Archives, with an illustrated history on the Burley Archive’s web site at https://burleycommunitylibrary.weekly.com and Storthes Hall, Kirkburton and you can find more about all the hospitals and see images at https://historic-hospitals.com .
Jude finally spoke about her own personal journey through the archives, having had a great grandfather who was an attendant at High Royds and a grandfather who was a also a patient. She now believes that her grandfather was admitted suffering from the effects of shell shock after the First World War that he never recovered from. Nevertheless, he was allowed to practice the organ and became the main organist for all weddings and funerals in Wakefield. He was also taken to the AGM of the Organist Society in London.
We would like to thank Jude for a very informative talk, handled well on a what is still today but especially as you look into its history, a complex and sensitive subject area. Library staff produced handouts and information sheets and if you would like to see them, please call into Keighley Local Studies library on the first floor of Keighley Library and ask for the file at the counter. We also have a small collection of books that cover the history of asylums and how to trace records for loan and for reference.
Our next events are listed below this blog, they are free as part of the 120 Year Celebrations of the free Keighley Carnegie Public Library (1904-2024), all welcome.
The “Dirty Old Town” event on Saturday 19th October with Kevin Bell did not reflect this popular song title in any way. It was full of colour, wit and laughter. This is something we have come to expect from Keighley born and bred Kevin, a former teacher, now artist and performer, and still a bit of a “likely lad” at heart.
As usual much of the local audience was quick to join in with the reminiscences of old industrial Keighley round the time of the 1950s-1970s. There was much laughter to be had, as Kevin sang and played guitar through this song: kissing his girl “by the factory wall”, dreaming “a dream by the old canal”, watching “a train set the night on fire” and smelling “spring on the smoky wind”, (if only we could). Kevin took us through his own painted images of Keighley town with his depiction of some of its well-known characters and streets to illustrate past, but still fondly remembered, times. This is living local history at its best and it was a reminder of Ian Dewhirst’s rare talent.
It’s great to catch a glimpse of someone else’s lively imagination and Kevin made us all laugh when he took a popular image of the “American Gothic” painting by Grant Wood and converted it to his own rendition of “Yorkshire Gothic” as illustrated, complete with their own back story. Thames & Hudson art publishers eat your heart out.
Refreshments followed, donations were made, and there was the expected queue for Kevin’s pictures. The calendars and Christmas cards of old Keighley sold for the Keighley charities of the Salvation Army and the Good Shepherd Fund went like hot cakes.
Thanks to Kevin, Pauline Bell and the Salvation Army and all those who supported this grand event. There are very few calendars and Christmas cards left so if you are still wanting some, please come to the counter on the first floor of Keighley Library: calendars (£10) and packs of 6 cards are £5 each with 2 new illustrations, one Haworth, one Keighley.
On Saturday, Keighley Local Studies Library was able to showcase one of its wonderful collections to another enthusiastic audience. This time it was the Lord Philip and Lady Ethel Snowden library and archive that we could highlight with the event of a book launch of a new edition of Philip Snowden’s vitriolic autobiography, edited by the author Alexander Clifford.
“Alex” Clifford is a history teacher as well as speaker and author of other historical works. He has written books on the Spanish Civil War and Hindenburg Ludendorff & Hitler, Germany’s generals and the rise of the Nazi’s.
Originally written in 2 volumes, Philip Snowden’s newly edited autobiography edition comes in a handy single volume format. The event itself consisted of a talk and photographic presentation by Alex Clifford about Philip Snowden’s life, values, interests and motivations and of course his controversial crossing from Labour to Conservative during the National Government of 1931 when he was expelled from the Labour Party.
The talk was followed by an expert panel discussion with questions from the audience to follow. We were privileged to have the well known authors and experts: Keith Laybourn and Andrew Thorpe: Professor Keith Laybourn is the president of the Society for the Study of Labour history and author of the leading biography of Philip Snowden. Professor Thorpe is Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Culture at the University of Leeds and author of ‘The History of the Labour Party’.
The Event was chaired by Will Barber-Taylor who is Deputy Director of the Centre Think Tank, he is a political writer and podcaster who is currently producing a new documentary on Snowden.
The audience responded well and there was a high calibre of questions from attendees who were clearly familiar with Snowden’s life and politics. The volatility of the times was also considered in the first quarter of the 20th century with the rise of “revolutionary socialism” as well as “evolutionary socialism”, World War 1 and the subsequent years of depression, testing times for any government and certainly any chancellor. Amongst the audience were a national newspaper journalist and a former government adviser.
Such events show the continued popularity of local history study and debate and help to highlight the value and importance of local study library collections that reveal the human experience and development of our communities.
We would like to thank all those who attended. Two new leaflets have been produced by library staff on the Snowdens and our collection in Keighley and will be in our guide section on this web site shortly.
A good number of copies of the new book were sold and there was a request for a similar event in the future, regarding another Keighley political figure in recent history.
“Britain’s Iron Chancellor, Philip Snowden, An Autobiography”, edited by Alexander Clifford (is available from all good bookshops, priced £25 and will be available soon in Keighley Local Studies Library for reference, later for loan (Pen & Sword Books Limited, Barnsley, 2024, ISBN 978 1 39902 495 2).
Bradford and District Local Studies 