Keighley

West Yorkshire

Keighley is an industrial and market town beneath the Pennine hills where the Worth Valley meets Airedale.

Keighley is 5 miles south-west of Ilkley, 8 miles north-west of Bradford, 8 miles south-south-east of Skipton, 10 miles west-north-west of Halifax and 10 mile east-north-east of Hebden Bridge.

The town's early small origins can be traced back to at least Saxon times, but growth came through it being a crossing point of early trade routes and with the establishment of a market through its charter granted by King Edward I in 1305.

There was later more substantial growth during the industrial revolution where the textile industry was dominant and represented not just by woollen but, more unusually for Yorkshire, cotton manufacture and the town was also a centre for the manufacture of textile machinery.

Today the town has a variety of industries and there is more modern construction in the midst of the town centre's fine buildings, mostly dating from the Victorian era. The town's strong heritage and access to old vehicles has attracted film-makers on many occasions, very frequently to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, a five-mile heritage railway line to Oakworth, Haworth and Oxenhope, most famously used for the film The Railway Children.

Town features

Keighley is on the River Worth, which joins the River Aire just to the north-east of the town.

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal runs through Riddlesden about 1.5 miles to the north-east of Keighley.

The town has a broad range of traditional independent shops around its streets together with big high street names at its central Airedale Shopping Centre. The centre is very accessible as it adjoins the town's bus station, has an eight-level multi-storey car park and is about 400 metres from the town's station. Keighley has a Market Hall near to the shopping centre with a large selection of traders. The town also has large supermarkets and two out-of-town retail parks just to the north of the town.

Keighley Post Office is in Cooke Lane at The Airedale Centre.

The town has bank and building society branches.

There are several pharmacies in and around Keighley.

Keighley has a good selection of pubs in the town and surrounding villages. With several microbreweries and the Timothy Taylor brewery based in the Keighley area, many offer a high standard of real ales.

The town offers a range of cafes, restaurants, bistros and takeaways with some of its neighbouring villages bringing even wider choice of places to eat.

Keighley Library

Keighley Library is a grade II listed building in North Street, built in 1904 and refurbished in 2007. It was the first public library in England to be funded by Scottish-born philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who made great wealth in the USA through investments and the building of the Carnegie Steel Company in Pittsburgh, USA.
More about

Keighley Library at City of Bradford MDC website.

See below for museums in the Keighley area.

Keighley Shared Church

The town's parish church dates from 1848, a medieval church having been demolished some years earlier. It is now Keighley Shared Church, being used for Anglican and Methodist worship.

Places of worship: Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, United Reformed, Islamic.

There are several schools in and around Keighley.

Entertainment

Keighley Playhouse
Devonshire Street, Keighley
Keighley Playhouse provides a variety of drama, comedy and thriller productions. The active amateur theatre company was formed back in 1947 as the Keighley Little Theatre. The group now stages several productions each year at Keighley Playhouse.

Website

Sport

Keighley Cougars play rugby league at Cougar Park, Royd Ings Avenue, Keighley.

Keighley Cougars official website.

Keighley RUFC play rugby union at Skipton Road, Utley.

Keighley Cricket Club is based in Hardings Road, Keighley and plays in the Bradford Cricket League.

Museums

Cliffe Castle Museum
Spring Gardens Lane, Keighley
Originally the home of a Victorian millionaire textile manufacturer and exporter, Cliffe Castle was a showpiece of international art and French decoration. The house was bought in the 1950s by Sir Bracewell Smith, a Keighley-born hotel-owner businessman and Conservative MP, who served as Lord Mayor of London just after World War II and later as chairman of Arsenal Football Club. He saw Cliffe Castle remodelled to create a grand public park for Keighley with the house becoming a free museum. In addition to the splendidly restored Victorian rooms, there are galleries covering the geology and natural history of the Airedale Valley, a collection of stained glass by Morris and Co and a variety of special events. The museum is now run by City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council.
Further information at

Bradford Museums & Galleries - Cliffe Castle Museum web pages.

Keighley Bus Museum
River Technology Park, Dalton Lane, Keighley
The Keighley Bus Museum Trust was established in 1992, aimed at filling a gap which would be left in preserving buses after the demise of the West Yorkshire Transport Museum and its successor Transperience, which were based at Low Moor, Bradford. The Trust has been active in preserving many old buses including examples from Keighley, Bradford, Huddersfield, Halifax, Leeds and other operators in Yorkshire together with a few examples from Lancashire towns, a London bus and a other municipal vehicles and lorries. The museum holds three major open days each year.
More information at the

Keighley Bus Museum Trust website.

Museum of Rail Travel, Ingrow
Ingrow station yard
This is one of two museums at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway's Ingrow West station, the first stop out of Keighley and just over a mile south of the town centre. The Museum of Rail Travel is operated by the Vintage Carriages Trust and opens daily to show its collection of historic railway rolling stock and memorabilia.
More information at the

Vintage Carriages Trust website.

Ingrow Loco Museum
Ingrow station yard
The Ingrow Loco Museum and Workshop is run by the Bahamas Locomotive Society in the former Midland Railway goods warehouse at Ingrow West station of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. The museum has items of railway interest, two steam locomotves and a gallery to view the workshop.
Further details at the

Ingrow Loco Museum website.

Places to visit

East Riddlesden Hall

East Riddlesden HallBradford Road, Riddlesden
The attractive 17th century home of a cloth merchant includes an array of needlework from the era. The house is set in colourful and peaceful gardens with an outdoor discovery garden and children's play area. The property, around 1.5 miles to the north-east of Keighley, has a car park, accessed through its narrow entrance. The property is managed by The National Trust.
Find out more at the

National Trust - East Riddlesden Hall web pages.
Locate on map:

East Riddlesden Hall

Keighley and Worth Valley Railway

Keighley Station and stations along the Worth Valley
The earliest of Yorkshire's heritage railways was made famous by the film The Railway Children in 1970, but that was just the first of many TV and film appearances, now going full circle with the 2022 film The Railway Children Return. The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway has a collection of more than 30 locomotives, many of them steam locomotives, and operates the five-mile branch between Keighley, Ingrow (West), Damems, Oakworth, Haworth and Oxenhope. Passengers can change to and from the rail network's Airedale Line trains at Keighley. Add-on tickets for the K&WVR can be bought with rail tickets from any station on the rail network while the railway's station ticket offices offer a full range of tickets. The line was among the country's first preserved railways, reopening as a preservation line six years after the closure of the branch by British Railways in 1962.

Find out more at the

Keighley and Worth Valley Railway website.

Haworth

Haworth, around 4 miles south of Keighley, is an attractive village popular with tourists. It was the one-time home of the literary Brontë sisters, their home having now become the Bronte Parsonage Museum. The village has attractive shops and cafes on its steep cobbled Main Street. Haworth also has a station on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway from which there is an uphill walk through Central Park to the village centre. The village can also be reached by bus from Keighley or Hebden Bridge. More on our page on Haworth.

Salt's Mill, Sailtaire

Saltaire

Near Shipley
About 4 miles north-north-west of Bradford, Saltaire village on the River Aire is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The huge Salt's Mill, a former textile mill, is at the centre of a late 19th century village of stone houses which were built for the mill workers by architects employed by mill owner Sir Titus Salt. More information on our page about Saltaire.

Travel

Keighley

Keighley stationStation Bridge
Keighley is a stop for Northern services linking Bradford Forster Square or Leeds with Skipton. Some trains continue beyond Skipton on to the Settle to Carlisle line through the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Keighley is also the end station of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway providing services along the Worth Valley to Ingrow West, Damems, Oakworth, Haworth and Oxenhope.
Station is managed by Northern. Operators: Northern and Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.

Northern - Keighley Station and departure information at Northern website.

Keighley bus station

Keighley bus stationBow Street, adjoining Airedale Shopping Centre
Regular buses operate from Keighley bus station in the centre of the town to most surrounding towns and also to local villages. Among services are buses to Harrogate via Ilkley and Otley, to Skipton, Hebden Bridge, Stanbury via Haworth, Oakworth, Oxenhope, Riddlesden, Broomhill, Cullingworth, Bradford, Leeds, also to Burnley in Lancashire and a seasonal summer Brontë Scenic Tour bus. The bus station is managed by Metro.

Road travel

The main Aire Valley trunk road runs around the north of the town centre, with the A650 running to the south-east towards Bradford and the A629 heading north-west towards Skipton. The A629 also runs south through the town towards Halifax and Huddersfield, also connecting around 3 miles south of the town to the A6033 towards Hebden Bridge.

Keighley usually has plenty of parking space available and has a large multi-storey car park in the centre of the town.

Emergency services

West Yorkshire Police

West Yorkshire Police website.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service website.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust website.

Local government

Town council
Keighley Town Council
Keighley Town Council was formed in 2002, restoring a local tier of government lost in the town's absorption into the City of Bradford metropolitan district in 1974. The town council is based at the Civic Centre in North Street and has 30 councillors representing 15 wards. The council elects a town mayor and deputy mayor. The council's role involves running allotments and maintaining some gardens, providing grit bins and grants to voluntary organisations, running the Civic Centre, civic events and publicising and representing the interests of the town.
Link to

Keighley Town Council website.

Metropolitan district council
City of Bradford

The City of Bradford authority covers an area extending many miles beyond the city itself, including areas of moorland of The Pennines and Ilkley Moor, parts of Wharfedale and Airedale and the Worth Valley.

The area includes many separate small towns and villages, among them Addingham, Baildon, Bingley, Burley in Wharfedale, Haworth, Idle, Ilkley, Keighley, Saltaire, Shipley and Silsden.

Councillors are elected across 30 wards with three councillors per ward.

One councillor per ward is elected for a four-year term on each of three years out of four.

Link to City of Bradford MDC website.

Political composition after the May 2022 election was:

52216 6 5

90 members

Political composition after the May 2023 election is:

56 *168 5 2 BSI21 II

90 members * includes Labour & Co-operative BSI = Bradford South Independents; II = Ilkley Independent

County strategic authority
West Yorkshire Combined Authority
Covers some combined services of the five metropolitan district councils of West Yorkshire - Bradford, Calderdale, Leeds, Kirklees and Wakefield - which were at one time provided by a West Yorkshire metropolitan county council, with the addition of the non-contiguous unitary authority area of the City of York council as well as the unelected Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership.

Operates with elected mayor Tracy Brabin as chairman and as decision-maker for some responsibilities after May 2021 election.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority website.

Police and Crime Commissioner
The Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire
This role has become one of the many responsibilities of the West Yorkshire elected mayor since May 2021.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority website.

Fire Authority
West Yorkshire Fire Authority
The fire authority is made up of elected members of each of the five metropolitan district councils of West Yorkshire - Bradford, Calderdale, Leeds, Kirklees and Wakefield.

West Yorkshire Fire Authority web pages.

Ceremonial county
West Yorkshire

Historic
1882-1974 Municipal borough (within the West Riding of Yorkshire).
1974-present within the City of Bradford metropolitan district of West Yorkshire.

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