1000 years in 1000 words
Keighley has always been defined by its hills, streams and steep sided valleys and is older than you think. Because of its position historically it has been the “landing spot” of the easiest route over the mid Pennines.
Archaeological finds date back to Neolithic. There are Roman finds, Road(s), a Fort/Farm and the mystery of the missing Ninth Legion.
Once we get to the Medieval and Danelaw, we can even start naming names and places that you may recognise today. Riddlesden was a centre for law making and sorting disputes and Keighley may have had an early Church.
Come 1066 the North did not accept William the Conqueror easily and rose against him, this included the Keighley area. This resulted in the “Harrying of the North.” Which was a genocide of the North from coast to coast the campaign was of mass killings, burning etc. and widespread destruction, including salting the earth, food production would be affected for years. The resulting suppression and starvation made survival difficult for at least a generation. When the Domesday Book was created, 1086, most of the land was still “waste”, with little or no taxable value. The tradition of ringing the Curfew Bell was kept up in Keighley for 800 years, until 1857, such was the remembered horror of those times.
In the Domesday Book there are 10 entries for the area that is now covered by KTC. This explains how Keighley still works today. It may be called a Town, but it is a collection of very individual villages, hamlets and localities that work together as a whole. In 1087 most of Keighley was given to Robert Romille, who lived at Skipton Castle. He was the person that the local bogeyman, Rombald the Giant was based on.
This is the time that the Norman Knights on the scene, although the first name that we can identify is a Richard De Keighley, who was born about 1150. Documents have become available showing that the church was given to Bolton Abbey when it was founded in 1154. They benefited from it until the Reformation of Henry VIII. One of our early Priests, Walter De Langton, had moved on from Keighley to become a Bishop and then Treasurer to King Edward I. While he was in post, in 1305, Keighley received its Market Charter.
Because of the Market more Packhorse Trails and Ancient Highways began to converge on the Town. The last of the direct line of the Keighley family died in 1567, leaving 2 incredibly young daughters as his co-heiresses. The eldest, Anne, married William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire, in 1581 taking her fortune and land to bolster the Cavendish coffers. The Dukes of Devonshire are her direct descendants, friends in high places.
Canny Priests/Vicars have managed things carefully during the Reformation and the Parish remained stable. By 1612 the Devonshire’s were selling land and the era of the Yeoman farmer began. The Civil War brought the decline of the local Gentry while the Yeoman prospered. While deaths did increase during Plague years again the area did not suffer too badly.
By the time, the of the Georgian era Keighley was able to benefit from the chances that came its way. Textiles became important, merchants appeared. Free Schools were founded. The church was remodelled in 1710. The Quakers had joined the Presbyterians as alternative religions and more would follow. The law was now mainly in the hands of local Justices and an early form of Social Care was in place.
Prosperous people began investing in Turnpike Trusts, Canal, and Rail Companies, some failed but many succeeded. In 1773 first section of the Leeds/Liverpool Canal opened skirting Keighley at Stockbridge. As it became easier to get products to market, we see the first small Textile Mills beginning to appear. The Industrial Revolution had begun, and Keighley was in ready to make the best of it.
The Textiles Industry took over and local inventiveness gave rise to the Textile Engineers, giving the Mills innovative technology. The completion of the transport network, by the arrival of the Railway in 1847 opened worldwide markets and Millionaires were made. Keighley began “punching above its weight” its influence was felt nationally and throughout the world as we supplied it with cloth, machinery and expertise and the population increased by 700% between 1801 and 1901.
The Industrial Magnets wanted their say in government, so the Town got its first Council in 1882. The Borough Council proceeded to improve water supplies, drainage, and streets. They introduced lighting, a local transport system, The Carnegie Library, and a progressive Education System. Between 1870 and 1925 they built the town we know today.
While life was good for those at the top it was less so for the workers, so Keighley was in there at the formation of the Independent Labour Party in 1893, being one of the twelve largest branches. Through the late 20s and 1930s working and housing conditions improved and continued to after WW2 until the late 1960s.
Both World Wars had brought increased work to the town along with fear, fairer share of food and goods and secrets with all the Mills and Works being given over to supplying the troops. Oume engineering expertise was paramount and affected the course of the Wars. The bombings never came as we were protected by the hills. After WW2, many Refugees came here to work in local industries.
From the 1970s political reorganisations and national centralisation policies began to affect the North badly. Keighley lost control of its future. Recessions came and never really went, greater reliance on the state was encouraged, re-generations were promised but never really happened.
So come the Millennium, despite the odds against it, Keighley voted overwhelmingly for a new Keighley Town Council which came into being in 2002 as the third largest of its kind.
Information researched and compiled by Joyce Newton Chair of KDLHS
For more detailed history, Images and more visit our sites.
https://keighleyhistory.org.uk/
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