Keighley

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For the constituency of the same name, see Keighley (UK Parliament constituency).
Keighley
PopulationExpression error: "51,429 (2001 Census)" must be numeric
OS grid referenceSE058412
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townKEIGHLEY
Postcode districtBD20, BD21, BD22
Dialling code01535
PoliceWest Yorkshire
FireWest Yorkshire
AmbulanceYorkshire
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Yorkshire

Keighley (pronunciationⓘ: Template:IPAlink-en KEETH-lee) is a town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated 11 miles (17.7 km) northwest of Bradford and is at the confluence of the River Aire and the River Worth. The town, which is part of the Brontë Country, has a population of 51,429 (2001 Census), making it the third largest civil parish in England.[1]

Keighley railway station is on the Airedale Line.

History

The town's industries have typically been in textiles, particularly wool and cotton processing. In addition to the manufacture of textiles there were several large factories making textile machinery. Two of these were Dean, Smith & Grace and Prince, Smith & Stell. The former operated as a world-class manufacturer of CNC machine tools, particularly precision lathes, until 2008. The population grew from less than 6,000 in 1800 to more than 60,000 in 1850 during a boom spurred by these industries.

The town became a municipal borough in 1882, but was merged into the Metropolitan Borough of Bradford in 1974 under the Local Government Act. The merger caused a lot of bitterness among Keighley people who resented being 'taken over' by Bradford and accused the city's council of neglecting the town.[2] Civil parish status was restored to Keighley in 2002,[3] providing it with its own town council. The council's 30 members elect a mayor from amongst their number once a year.

Geography

Keighley War Memorial

Keighley lies at the confluence of the River Worth and River Aire in the south Pennines. Its northernmost boundary is marked by the suburb of Bradley and its southern limit is the edge of Oxenhope. To the west, the town advances up the hill to the suburb of Black Hill and in the east it terminates at the residential neighbourhoods of Long Lee and Thwaites Brow. The outlying northeastern suburb of Riddlesden is sometimes referred to as a separate village, though strictly speaking it is part of the town.

The River Aire passes through northeastern Keighley, dividing the neighbourhood of Stockbridge and running roughly parallel to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. The Worth links up with the Aire in Stockbridge and runs southwestly, dividing eastern Keighley from central and western districts of the town. The Worth is lined with abandoned, semi-derelict industrial sites and tracts of waste ground dating from the period when Keighley thrived as a major textile centre.

Parts of Keighley are very prone to flooding and the town was particularly badly hit in 2000. Since then, millions have been spent on strengthening flood defences.

Outlying villages that make up part of the town are Oakworth, Cross Roads, Haworth, Stanbury and Oxenhope. The two main settlements to the north are Silsden and Steeton. Although these villages are often referred to as separate places they do in fact make up the Keighley area, as recognised by the postal service and land registry.

Demography

Census population of the ancient parish/civil parish of Keighley
Year 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891
Population
5,745
6,864
9,223
11,176
13,413
18,259
18,819
24,704
30,395
36,176
Source: Vision of Britain - Keighley AP/CP: Total Population.[4]
Census population of the municipal borough of Keighley
Year 1901 1911 1921 1931 1939 † 1951 1961 1971
Population
41,564
43,487
41,921
40,441
56,631
56,944
55,845
55,325
Source: Vision of Britain - Keighley MB: Total Population.[5]

† The 1939 population is estimated from the National Registration Act figures.[6] The 1941 census did not take place because of the Second World War.

Immigration

In the 1960s the town sustained a significant influx of newcomers from the Azad Kashmir region of Pakistan and the Sylhet district of what is now Bangladesh. Most of these predominantly Muslim migrants were initially employed in the textiles industry but the decline of this sector inflicted great economic hardship on the two communities.

Since then the Kashmiris and Sylhetis have struggled to carve a fresh niche through private enterprise, particularly in the taxi and restaurant trades. In 2006 the town was home to about 8,000 Muslims and seven mosques. The purpose-built Emily Street mosque in Lawkholme is said to be one of the largest in northern England. Most of Keighley's Muslims live in Lawkholme, Highfield, Showfield and Knowle Park, with smaller clusters residing in Dalton Lane, Stockbridge and Shann Park. 15 per cent of the town's population is Muslim.

Religion

Keighley has a parish church (St. Andrew's Shared Church) and is home to many Christian denominations. It has churches and places of worship for Anglicans, Methodists, United Reformed, Mormons, Quakers, Salvation Army and Jehovah's Witnesses. Keighley also contains a significant Roman Catholic minority who were established in the mid-19th century with the arrival of many Irish immigrants who came to work in the many textile and weaving industries. Keighley has three main Roman Catholic churches (St Anne's 1840, St Joseph's 1934 and Our Lady of Victories 1939) and four Roman Catholic schools (St Anne's 1857, St Joseph's 1922, Our Lady of Victories 1960 and Holy Family 1964).

The first ever spiritualist church in Britain was founded at Keighley. David Richmond, although not originally from the town, stayed there for many years, and helped to establish the movement. Spiritualism died out after the Second World War, but the Keighley church remains open; there are still more spiritualist churches in West and South Yorkshire than is usual for British counties.

Architecture

Like many other British towns and cities, Keighley was extensively remodelled in the 1960s and lost many historic buildings. However, the town has managed to retain some of its heritage and still has many fine Victorian buildings.

East Riddlesden Hall and Cliffe Castle are fine, country houses. There are also a succession of large, gracious town houses along Skipton Road which contrast sharply with the cramped rows of terraces in the streets behind them.

The town's central library is another highlight. It was the first Carnegie Library in England and was opened in 1904 with a grant of £10,000 from Andrew Carnegie. The library has undergone extensive refurbishment due to having fallen into a poor state of repair. These works were completed in August 2007. Many of the town's former mill buildings are still intact, though a lot of these are crumbling due to vandalism and neglect.

The centre of the town contains both modern buildings (such as Park Lane College Keighley) and fine examples of Victorian commercial architecture, including the long terrace of Cavendish Street with its 200 metre ornamental canopy. There is an award winning bus station which opened in 2002 near the Airedale Shopping Centre. There are several tower blocks in Parkwood Rise, Holycroft and Ingrow. There is also a central multi-storey car park. Traffic congestion is a perennial problem in Keighley.

Local highlights

Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, Keighley, West Yorkshire.

On the outskirts of the town there is Cliffe Hall, also known as Cliffe Castle, and now Keighley Museum.[7] Keighley is also the home base of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, a heritage railway that passes through Haworth (part of the Brontë Country, home of Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë) and terminates at Oxenhope. At Ingrow there is the Museum of Rail Travel.

Top Withens and the Brontë Waterfall are within walking distance from a village called Stanbury, a mile and a half from Haworth.

East Riddlesden Hall is close to Keighley. There is a Morrisons on Worth Way, and a Sainsbury's on Cavendish Street. In September 2006, following a major planning inquiry, permission was granted for a new Asda superstore to be built on Bradford Street. However, the front page headline in the Keighley News on September 21st, 2006 reported that this store would not be completed and open for business until 2009.

Local schools are Greenhead High School[8] in Utley, Oakbank School[9] , South Craven School[10] in Cross Hills (North Yorkshire), Parkside Secondary School[11] in Cullingworth and the Holy Family Roman Catholic School[12]. These schools are for pupils aged 11-18.

Park Lane College Keighley, which is part of Park Lane College Leeds is currently located at the junction of North and Cavendish Streets in the town centre. However, this further and higher education college is now having a brand new campus built in Dalton Lane. This is scheduled to be completed in 2010. The college includes a nationally acclaimed 'Star Centre' facility, designed to encourage more young people to study maths and science. This features a mock mission control centre, a planetarium, a simulated rocky planet surface and many other space-related items.

Keighley Cougars RLFC are based at Royd Ings Avenue and play semi-pro rugby league in National League 2. Their ground's traditional name is Lawkholme Lane but has more recently been named 'Cougar Park'.

Keighley is also home to the Timothy Taylor Brewery, the makers of several award-winning ales such as Landlord, Taylor's Best Bitter and Golden Best.

Keighley has a popular local music scene. There has been various venues in the town, where local bands play shows. Examples of local bands are Random Hand, The GetGuns and Eyesore Angels (ESA). The British rock band Terrorvision was originally formed in Keighley.

Located on North Street is one of Britain's oldest cinemas,[citation needed] Keighley Picture House has been open since 1913.

Keighley in film

Keighley was the setting for the film Blow Dry starring Josh Hartnett, Alan Rickman, and Bill Nighy. Blow Dry opens with the announcement that the small town of Keighley will host the year 2000 British Hair Championships. Keighley's mayor (Warren Clarke) is thrilled about the news, but when he announces it to the town's press, they all yawn disapprovingly. (The film was actually shot in Dewsbury.)

The 2004 documentary Edge of the City, about the City of Bradford social services, and the people and problems they deal with, was partly filmed in Keighley, and concerned sexual abuse of underage white girls by some Asian men.[13]

Most of the 2004 film Yasmin was shot in Keighley. Written by Simon Beaufoy and mostly filmed in Lawkholme, it tells the story of a British Muslim woman who has her life disrupted by the impact of the September 11th attacks on America. Mr Beaufoy said the film was originally set in Oldham, Greater Manchester, but "worked its way across the Pennines".

The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (KWVR), running steam trains from Keighley to Haworth and Oxenhope, has been used in several films, including The Railway Children, Yanks, and the film of the Pink Floyd musical The Wall.

A great part of the 2004 BBC television drama North and South was shot on Keighley, with Dalton Mill being one of the serial's main locations.[14]

Notable people with Keighley links

  • Brontë Sisters — Charlotte (born April 21, 1816), Emily (born July 30, 1818), and Anne (born January 17, 1820) lived in the village of Haworth, which is a few miles south of Keighley.
  • George Nicholson (1760–1825), printer, was born in Keighley.[15]
  • Margaret Wintringham (1879–1955), the second woman to take a seat in the House of Commons[16]
  • Trevor Hockey, Welsh international footballer, who also played with Bradford City and Birmingham City.
  • Gordon Bottomley, a Victorian era poet (1874-1948) was born and educated in Keighley.
  • Peter Mayhew, British actor who played Chewbacca in the Star Wars films, lived in Keighley between 1987 and 2000.[17]
  • Denis Healey, a Labour party politician. [18]
  • Alastair Campbell, former Labour party spindoctor. [19]
  • Mike Hellawell, professional footballer who made two appearances for England and also played for Birmingham City, Queens Park Rangers and Sunderland.
  • Paul Hudson, a local television weather forecaster.
  • Claire Rayner, a television agony aunt who lived in Keighley as an evacuee during the Second World War.
  • Mollie Sugden, television comedy actress.
  • Ricky Wilson, of Leeds five-piece Kaiser Chiefs, is a native of Keighley.
  • Kiki Dee, successful singer-songwriter, originally from Bradford, whose career spanned 40 years.
  • Simon Beaufoy, A Golden Globe award-winning British screenwriter who was born in Keighley.
  • Tommy Lee, who is a goalkeeper for Macclesfield Town FC.
  • John Kilcoyne, a star of the television programme Brainiac: Science Abuse was born and raised in Keighley.
  • Peter Judson, a former boxer who challenged for the British featherweight title in the 1990s.
  • Saima Hussain, first Asian female rugby player to represent Great Britain [20]

A Sharpe connection?

Keighley's Utley cemetery contains the grave of war hero Christopher Ingham, a veteran of the conflict against Napoleon. He was a member of the Duke of Wellington's elite 95th Rifle Regiment and fought in 10 battles against the French in Spain, France and Belgium. These included the Spanish Peninsula War and the Battle of Waterloo, for which he was awarded several medals, including the Peninsula Medal. He died in 1866. Some local historians believe Mr Ingham's heroism may have inspired the author Bernard Cornwell's saga about Major Richard Sharpe, played by Sheffield-born Sean Bean in the TV adaptation.[21]

The Joy of Keighley

Bill Bryson in his book Notes from a Small Island jokingly asked why it was that the British Army uses beautiful countryside for munition target practice, rather than a place like Keighley.

In 2003 The Idler magazine set up an online poll to decide which were the 50 worst places to live in Britain. The results were published in the book Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places to Live in the UK. Keighley came in at number 40. Keighley's local newspaper, the Keighley News, reported the reaction of Councillor Andrew Mallinson, chairman of Keighley Town Centre Management Group: "On the positive side, it's nice to know that out of all the towns in the country, Keighley has got a mention! But on a serious note, as a group, we take any complaints or concerns seriously and are always striving to improve the town centre's image."

The attitude of most outsiders to Keighley, and, indeed, many of its residents can be summed up by the John Cooper Clarke poem: "I'll tell you now and I'll tell you briefly, I don't never want to go to Keighley." However, many residents do not feel this way about the town and are quite fond of its history, charm, and character. Keighley is a keen competitor in the Yorkshire in Bloom Competition, and its enthusiastic, colourful floral displays do much to enhance the town centre during the summer months.

Politics

Keighley is represented in the House of Commons by Labour MP Ann Cryer, who has been in office since 1997, when she took over from Conservative MP Gary Waller. Her late husband was Labour MP Bob Cryer, who was also an MP for Keighley.

Keighley was also at the centre of activities by the British National Party (BNP) in the May 2005 general elections when the party's leader Nick Griffin stood for Parliament. He was defeated by Ann Cryer, who was one of a small number of Labour MPs to report an increased majority. In March 2006, the town's mayoress, Rose Thompson, caused further political shockwaves by announcing she had joined the BNP.[22]

Even more recently, the issue of Keighley being part of Bradford has become a political talking point. In June 2006, the leader of Bradford District Council, Conservative Councillor Kris Hopkins, was quoted in the Craven Herald & Pioneer as suggesting it might be a good idea for Keighley to become an independent authority once again.[23]

Keighley has also had a town council since 2002.[3]

Gang wars

A bloody turf war between two local drug gangs resulted in the murder of four young Asian men from Keighley in a five-and-a-half month period, from September 2001 to February 2002. Those killed in this period were Yasser Hussain Nazir, Yasser Khan, Zaber Hussain and Qadir Ahmed. The last of these four, Qadir, was stabbed and beaten to death near Victoria Park after being ambushed and chased by rival gang members. The killings sparked a major police investigation and a number of men — including criminals from nearby Bradford — were convicted and given long prison sentences.[24]

Town twinning

Gallery

References

  1. ^ Neighbourhood Statistics - Keighley CP (Parish). URL accessed 3 February 2008.
  2. ^ Keighley grappling to find Voice for the future. Keighley News, first published 9 April 2001.
  3. ^ a b Town council makes history. Telegraph & Argus, first published 24 May 2002.
  4. ^ Keighley AP/CP: Total Population. Vision of Britain. URL accessed 1 March 2008.
  5. ^ Keighley MB: TotalPopulation. Vision of Britain.URL accessed 1 March 2008.
  6. ^ National Registration Act, 1939. Rootsweb.com. URL accessed 8 June 2007.
  7. ^ keighleyonline. URL accessed 3 February 2008.
  8. ^ Greenhead High School. URL accessed 3 February 2008.
  9. ^ Oakbank School. URL accessed 3 February 2008.
  10. ^ South Craven School. URL accessed 3 February 2008.
  11. ^ Parkside Secondary School. URL accessed 3 February 2008.
  12. ^ Holy Family Roman Catholic School. URL accessed 3 February 2008.
  13. ^ Channel 4
  14. ^ "BBC - Drama - Backstage - Soundtrack and Location information" at the Internet Archive. Retrieved on 23 March 2008.
  15. ^ Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography - George Nicholson
  16. ^ Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography: Margaret Wintringham
  17. ^ Star Wars giant returns. Telegraph and Argus, first published 2 May 2003.
  18. ^ Denis Healey biography. spartacus.schoolnet. URL accessed 3 February 2008.
  19. ^ Campbell cashes in his chips. Scotland on Sunday, first published 31 August 2003.
  20. ^ http://www.kickitout.org/news.php/news_id/2336
  21. ^ Woman pays tribute to Sharpe hero. Telegraph and Argus, first published 7 November 2003.
  22. ^ BNP Mayoress stripped of position. BBC News, dated 13 March 2006.
  23. ^ South Craven 'could split from Bradford'. Craven Herald & Pioneer, first published 14 July 2006.
  24. ^ "Tit-for-tat gang war plunged into killings". Telegraph & Argus. 2003-06-27. Retrieved 2008-03-21.

External links

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