Keighley

Keighley is the former home of Rental Stairlifts' sister company, Sabre Stairlifts, and we have many happy customers throughout the town and nearby villages. The town lies along the River Worth in a deep valley below gritstone Pennine moors, and is next to Haworth, former home of the Brontë family.

 

Keighley grew rapidly in the 19th century when its woollen, textile and textile machinery manufacturing industries benefited from access to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

 

History

The name Keighley, which has gone through many changes of spelling throughout its history, means “Cyhha’s farm or clearing”, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book - “In Cichhelai, Ulchel, and Thole, and Ravensuar, and William had six carucates to be taxed.”

Previous historical records say that Henry de Keighley, a Lancashire knight, was granted a charter to hold a market in Keighley on 17 October 1305 by King Edward, and in 1379 the population of Keighley, in the wapentake of Staincliffe in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was 109 people (47 couples and 15 single people).

Keighley lost its civil parish status in 1974 when Bradford Metropolitan Council was formed. This was only restored in 2002 when a new 26 member-strong town council was created by order of the secretary of state.

Today the town area has a population of over 50,000, making it one of the largest civil parishes in England.

 

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. These included Dean, Smith & Grace, George Hattersley & Son and Prince, Smith & Stell. Dean, Smith & Grace operated as a manufacturer of CNC machine tools, particularly precision lathes, until 2008.

Geography

Keighley lies at the confluence of the rivers Worth and Aire in Airedale, in the South Pennines. Its northern boundary is with 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 north-eastern suburb of Riddlesden is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a separate village, but is part of the town.

The town was incorporated as a municipal borough on 28 July 1882 under the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act 1882 in the West Riding of Yorkshire. On 1 April 1974 it became part of the City of Bradford Metropolitan District in accordance with the 1972 Local Government Act in the newly formed county of West Yorkshire.

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. Civil parish status was restored to Keighley in 2002, providing it with its own town council. The council’s 30 members elect a mayor from amongst their number once a year.

The town has a local history society, Keighley and District Local History Society, and a family history society, Keighley and District Family History Society.

 

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

 

To the north east is Rombald’s Moor which contains many signs of stone age and bronze age occupation including cup and ring marks, and as it drops back down into Wharfedale and the town of Ilkley, approximately five miles away, it becomes the more famous Ilkley Moor.

 

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