Brontë Trail Launch

November 21, 2022Bradford Libraries Leave a comment

Keighley Local Studies Library staff are very pleased to announce the launch of the very first Brontë Trail around Keighley. It’s now published and will be available in the library from Saturday 3^rd December after the launch at 10am. All welcome.

You too can follow in the footsteps of these literary greats as they catch up with friends, tuition, lectures, shopping, book borrowing, publishing, travel stops and entertainments. We shall have a range of photographs, books and archives out in the library for those wanting to follow the trail in more depth.

The Trail will also be taken out onto the streets of Keighley after the launch by the local historian and very popular guide, Irene Lofthouse, who will be dressed in the guise of Nancy de Garrs (Nancy Garrs), nursemaid and cook to the young Brontë children for 8 years. There are only 15 places available for the actual trail so please telephone 01535 618215 to book your place.

The day will also hold other Create Connect Make activities as well as the regular children’s story time at 11am. There will be Learn to Crochet with CCM Making and Crafting group in the meeting room, first floor, a special story time at 2pm with Catrina Farnell, bookmaking/collage drop in all day in the library with CCM’s wonderful Jean McEwan and a Christmas crafts drop in.

Please come and join us for this Christmas feast of activity.

Remembrance Day in Keighley

November 11, 2022Bradford Libraries Leave a comment

As everywhere today, people came together to mark the day that World War One ended on the 11^th day of the 11^th month at 11am in 1918. It’s a day marked by towns and villages all over the country as a day for communities, families and individuals to remember the great loss of life that war brings, not least the lives of service and military personnel.

Keighley Local Studies Library hosted a family history morning session for local people to trace the members of their families who have served in the war and on the Home Front through the archives available and we were fortunate enough to get the help of the Queen’s Award winning volunteers the Men of Worth, led by Andy Wade and Ian Walkden, who as always gave of their helpful best. Library staff also displayed the many library books on local and family history specific to the session and copies of original records from the unique library archive collection held in Keighley.

It was a successful morning and we hope that everyone gained a better knowledge of their own families’ history and of the local history of the Keighley area as affected by war. Keighley’s Town Mayor, Councillor Luke Maunsell and Consort, Debbie Maunsell, also visited and this added to the occasion. Events like this particularly emphasise the value of local archives to the community as a whole and of the essential contribution they make to the wider bank of knowledge that is our national history as it unfolds. We are all inevitably touched by national and international affairs and 2022 has proved no small exception.

Andy Wade also took the opportunity to present to Keighley Library a copy of the Oakworth Roll of Honour 1914-1919 and 2014-2019.

Many thanks to everyone who attended.

Another Keighley Local Studies Archive Treasure

October 28, 2022Bradford Libraries Leave a comment

What’s in the Box?

BK15, The 1763 Keighley Methodist Records.

When, in 1763, William Grimshaw, the famous perpetual curate of Haworth died, John Wesley sent in some quite capable preachers to take control of the Methodist Circuit built around him. The superintendent he chose was William Fugill, who, although of a dissolute character (he was sacked shortly afterwards for drunkenness and immorality), was an extremely capable organiser. The circuit, based on Keighley was enormous, stretching from Elland through north west England to Longtown at the Scottish Border. In total there were 63 societies and 1804 members. Fugill followed Wesley’s instructions and the preachers visited each society every quarter and interviewed the members, recording their names, marital status, occupation, residence, and their spiritual attainment, which the superintendent copied into a register. That register is held in the Keighley Local Studies Archive and is the earliest full record in existence in the country holding more than simply members’ names. This is a gold mine for researchers and has been used several times in the past to understand something of what Methodism meant to the ordinary people in the mid eighteenth century. A treasure indeed!

A workshop, illustrating these records will be held via Zoom at the Really Useful Show of the Federation of Family History Societies on Saturday, 12th November.

Robert Schofield,
Oxenhope,
Editor, E-Bulletin, Family and Community History Research Society.

Armistice Day in Keighley Local Studies – 11th November 2022

October 28, 2022October 28, 2022Bradford Libraries Leave a comment

Keighley Local Studies Library has a unique and quite extensive archive of World War 1 and WW2 records. These include national and local memorabilia and archives. The Keighley War hospital records are particularly interesting and of national importance as they are a rarity. They include the Dr Scatterty collection which has a Patients’ register, archive BK39, that contains 13,214 names of servicemen who were treated at the local Morton War Hospital. The register also records the names of German prisoners of war who were being held locally and who required treatment from time to time, notably from the influenza epidemic.

The Queen’s Award winning Men of Worth Project are documenting the men and women of Keighley and the Worth Valley who served the country in wartime and volunteers have done a lot of research into Keighley Library’s unique collection. Volunteers have also been working hard to transcribe and digitise the Patient Register.

On the 11 November, we hope to combine the two archives and, with the award winning assistance of Men of Worth volunteers, we hope to be able to help local people trace the service men and women in their families from Keighley and the Worth valley area. It is a short session this year and will be broken by the two minutes’ silence in Keighley’s Town Hall square. Please join us if you can.