There will be an exhibition at the Quaker Meeting House on Thursday 1st October, Friday 2nd October (11.00 - 3.00 p.m.) and Saturday 3rd October (11- 4.00 p.m.), celebrating the past, present and future of Quakers in Keighley.
In the 1650s, Quakers were the first Dissenters to be established in Keighley.
Associates of George Fox, William Dewsbury and Thomas Stubbs preached at Stanbury, Oakworth Hall, and at Exley Head, where many were ‘convinced’, including the Brigg, Taylor, and Clayton families. These people were punished severely for attending Quaker Meetings and following Quaker ways.
After Quaker worship became legal, a Meeting House was acquired on Upper Green some time between 1690 and 1709. The Quaker Meeting gradually declined, closing in 1855. The Meeting House was then used as a school.
However, in 1872, Keighley Quakers were re-established, returning to the Meeting House in 1877. There has been a Quaker Meeting in Keighley ever since.
The old Meeting House was demolished in 1936, as part of town ‘improvements’, and Friends then moved to the now familiar Strawberry Street Meeting House.