Search This Site ~ Famous People ~
& People of Note
There is also a page titled families, which also includes individual personalities. If you are looking for people connected with the industry of Keighley, try the history page.

Over the years many people from Keighley have got to the top of their chosen field, some have became well known in the area just because of their personalities. A few of these are listed here. Also well known characters have also been included.
Characters from Keighley   2-archiver.rootsweb.com  3-archiver.rootsweb.com  4-archiver.rootsweb.com   5-archiver.rootsweb.com

David Bates. Adviser to the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Institute of Groundsmanship. answers.com

Joyce Beard: Fought for equal rights for men and women carers. Her legal action took her to the European Court which in 1993 found that the British government had been breaking the law.

Charlie Bhowmick  MBE  For services to race and inter-faith relations in Keighley. A  member of the Temple Street Methodist Church until it became a mosque. hindu.com

Gordon Bottomley Poet & Playwright 1874-1948 litencyc.com


Margaret Burton Actress theargus.co.uk Played : Mrs Tucker (a widow) in Bradford Drama Festival - Monday 6 to Saturday 11 May, 1963

Andrew Carnegie towntalk.co.uk


Alistair Campbell, Politician news.scotsman.com


John Tiplady Carrodus (1836-1895),
English violinist. Born at the Manor House in Braithwaite in 1836.the son of a hairdresser who worked in Keighley. It is  likely that Manor House had been subdivided some time. In 1895 he was the first man to be given freedom of the Borough of Keighley. encyclopedia.jrank.org

Granville Daniel Clarke, Artist. Born in Keighley and raised in Barnsley granvilledclarke.co.uk


Thomas Emmott Professional Cricketer born 3 September 1841 in Halifax, Yorkshire; died 30 June 1904, in Leicester. one of the finest bowlers in English cricket in the late 1860s, the 1870s and the 1880s. Emmett was a popular professional, with a cheery nature, and an inexhaustible energy with which he played the game, making him a prime favourite wherever he went. lived at 21 Albert St, Keighley in 1881 Click here to see household

John R. Firth Linguist britannica.com


Denis Healey spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk


Paul Hudson  Weather Man bbc.co.uk


Peter Hartley, England county cricketer  content-usa.cricinfo


Matilda Florella Illingworth: Born 1843 in Cabbage Fold, her father a mill book keeper, her mother a dressmaker. In 1864 John Greenwood of Swarcliffe Hall near Ripon lent her £10 so she could attend the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels. Because of her exquisite voice she quickly rose to fame. When she returned home for a visit in 1871 public admiration knew no bounds. Lister Marriners Brass Band marched passed her house to serenade her with home sweet home. Another complimentary concert counted the Duke of Devonshire among its patrons. For some reason in 1881 she fell from grace, we know that at this time her sister and companion Hannah Maria Illingworth died of smallpox. Matilda returned to Keighley to live with her Aunt, but this time there was no fanfare. She died age 50 in 1893. The Keighley News which two decades before had waxed lyrically about her singing, now stated she was only a popular vocalist.

Alex Keighley. World-famous photographer (1861-1947) thisisbradford.co.uk


Abraham Kershaw. He came to Keighley from Milnsbridge near Huddersfield. He played piano at the Britannia Music Hall, often playing the piano with his hands and the cymbal, drums and triangle with his feet. He built a five story wooden theater, in 1880 the Queens Theater and Opera House opened. He was a partner in the later New Queens Theater and Opera House which was built on the site of the old one.

Dougie Lampkin Indoor/outdoor Trials World Champion from Silsden dougielampkin.co.uk


James Leach. Pie Leach:Born 1815 at Harewood Hill near Oakworth. The oldest of five children. It is well documented how argumentative Mr. Leach could be, from the boardroom in 1882 of the meeting of the Guardians of Keighley Workhouse.
Mr. Middlebrook: If Mr. Leach does not hold his tongue I will have him put out of the room.
Mr. Leach: You will not, you can not
Mr. Middlebrook: I will try
Mr. Leach: You will have to get assistance
Mr. Middlebrook: You are a shame and a disgrace to the town and to the Board.
In another incident he was approached by the Chairman of a meeting, Mr. Snowden, because LEach was stood in the doorway shouting, Mr. Snowden asked him to either go in or out of the room. Leach refused and grabbed Mr. Snowden by the collar, there was a scuffle and Mr. Leach was thrown on his back on the floor, much to the amusement of the others.
He had various occupations, he started off working as a handloom weaver, but then made his living from gambling and hawking. Later in life he served on many of Keighley's boards and was active in politics and was party to having the bridge over the railway built. One occupation of which was pie maker, hence the nick name. But he also kept a diary which provides some useful information on Keighley at that time. He also notes some long forgotten notoriety's. Paul Lad, Red from Kildwick, John Hey, commonly called Bonny Boy who was forever kicking up a disturbance with his wife in the Pin Fold: Samuel Smith commonly called Mucky Sam who threw Patrick Waterhouse over the battlement at Damside a depth of 5 yards and cut and wounded him dangerously.
When Mr Leach grew more prosperous as a greengrocer he built Balmoral House in Skipton Road, where there is a stone inscription high in the  wall. One of his wife's (he had three, but not at the same time) Sarah, her address is 31 Low Street for which in 1840 she paid £480 for a house and shop, she died 19 Aug. 1889. The premises were later sold in 1889 for £1950. In 1892 almost 78 he married his third wife, his housekeeper aged 35.
Pie Leach died 13 Oct. 1893. His rather distinctive tombstone was designed and the epitaph written by himself, which is still in existence.

Zoe Lucker
Made her TV debut in 1996 with Brazen Hussies. She also appeared in Coronation Street, Killer Net, Holby City, Trial and Retribution IV and Zoe Lucker's Little Black Dress Workout video. She lives in north London and can currently be seen in the new series of Footballers' Wives on ITV1.  tt.ee

John Moore (1662-1726)  Baptist minister. Born at Oakworth Hall. /website.lineone.net/~gsward

Eddie Paynter  Left-handed batsman content-usa.cricinfo.com   thisisbradford.co.uk


Fred Pickles selected for the Tokyo Olympics in 1940 weights.demon.co.uk
Fred Pickles from Keighley was selected for the Tokyo Olympics in 1940, but lost his chance with the outbreak of war. Only four Yorkshire lifters have ever represented Great Britain at the Olympics, but Fred never got the chance again.

In 1934 at the age of just seventeen, Fred jerked above double bodyweight to become the youngest ever British lifter to achieve this feat. The lift was a Two Hands Continental Jerk of 257lbs in the Nine Stone (126lbs) Weight Class.

Fred, whose father and grandfather both had "fairground" strong-man acts, went on to be British Champion, and lifted in the famous home and away internationals against France in 1938. Like many sportsmen of the era, his best years were lost because of the war.

Fred still holds British Records in the Clean & Jerk From Behind Neck (with 236¼lbs) and the Right Hand Snatch (with 139lbs), both set in the Nine Stone Class in 1938. He won his first YNE title in 1935 and his final one in 1948.

Fred became a stalwart of Keighley Rifle Club, and also became an international at that sport, as Captain of the England team in the 1994 Home Internationals.

Fred was awarded the BAWLA Award of Honour in 1996. As with his contemporaries Ron Walker and Norman Holroyd, Fred lifted big weights in the days of hard training and keen competition. His achievements would still place him near the top of the tree in Britain today

.Text taken from weights.demon.co.uk


Michael Sams thisisbradford.co.uk


Thomas Simpson One of the first people to establish a business at the site of Hay in the western Riverina of New South Wales


William Sharp. Old Three Laps: Lived at Whorles Farm near Laycock, and went to bed for forty years. More

Philip Snowden cottontown.org


Mollie Sugden  imdb.com  nndb.com


Emanuel Swedenborg,

born Emanuel Swedberg; February 8 1688 – March 29, 1772 scientist and philosopher  newchurchissues.org Formed the first New Jerusalem Society in Yorkshire. The temple was built in 1805 in King Street adjoining Acers Mill, owned by Barry Smith, who was a member.

Timothy Taylor
Elizabeth Petyt of Hazlewood, Bolton Abbey, married Richard Taylor of Bingley at Bolton Abbey in 1816 Timothy was born at Bingley in 1826. Timothy married Charlotte Aked daughter of printer and publisher Robert Aked of Keighley Timothy continued in his old trade as a tailor had a shop in Low Street, Some time during the mid 1850s Timothy changed his occupation to maltster and brewer. He had premises in Cook Lane five years later he removed to a new site at Knowle Spring. (Knowl Spring House was owned by his father in law) Timothy died in 1898.

Harry Hargreaves Thompson: Harry Tap: Born in Colne, came to Keighley in the 1840's as Ostler at the Crown Inn, Church Green, Keighley. Later keeping the Fleece Tap behind Low Street. It was here that he earned the nick name Harry at Tap, the name stuck and he was called this when he took over the Royal Oak. Here he founded  the "Hen Pecked Club", which continued until Harry moved to the Kings Head in 1868. Later he owned the White Horse Brewery in Halifax Road.
Harry died age 54 in 1877. His obituary read, " Commencing life with little or nothing he amassed a considerable fortune by diligence and shrewdness in business, and by always attending to his own affairs.

John Waddington-Feather.
Anglican NSM priest. Wrote a children's novel, Quill's adventures in Grozzieland, and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal in 1989 shropshire-cc.gov.uk

William Wright. Bill O' Th'Holus End. Born in 1836 he lived at Hoylus End houses at Hermit Hole   More