England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Keighley St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Keighley lies in western Yorkshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Lancashire. Keighley is located roughly 10 miles northwest of the industrial town of Bradford and sits on and mostly southwest of the A690 road which links it with Bradford and of the A629 road which connects it with Skipton. Keighley is a much grown town as a result of 19th century industrial expansion. Although Keighley was granted a market as early as first decades of the 14th century it remained a small market town until the development of mills begun in 1780, a market for the produce of a largely pastoral area. The first mill was more similar to those of neighbouring Lancashire being for cotton but over the next century Keighley expanded through production of Yorkshire's famous worsted. Within 2 generations the population expanded from under 6,000 in 1801 to almost 22,000 by 1861 and the town has continued to grow ever since. Keighley had a favourable position sitting deep in the valley of the River Worth almost at its junction with the Aire, the Worth provided the power until steam took over, the result was a townscape of mill towers, smoke and noise. Today most of the mills, textile engineering and paper making industries have largely disappeared or have become heritage, Keighley is now a thriving regional centre with its redeveloped town centre a shopping destination for the urban area which spreads up the valley of the Worth for almost 3 miles, the urban fringe along the Aire also connects it via Bingley into the wider Greater West Yorkshire Urban area. Modern developments have come in abundance, the railway line from Bradford to Skipton passing through and granting Keighley a station, the branch line down the Worth valley to Haworth has now become a heritage steam line and both the A690 & A629 are now fast dual-carriageway highways. The Aire drains the parish southeastwards, passing through Leeds and out onto the Vale of York where it meets the other Dales rivers to pass to the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Keighley is sited at around 100 metres above the sea at its church, steep sides to the Worth valley, however, rise abruptly to the Pennine Moors which top out at 443 metres at the Wolf Stones and at 462 metres at Withins Heights with its Bronte connections. Like many upland parishes that of Keighley covered an extensive area of around 10,200 acres of which it was estimated 2,000 was unproductive peat moor, that acreage saw the population explode to around 14,000 by the end of the transcript period, the volume of marriages recorded would be more indicative of an average population for the transcript period of around 8,000, In common with much of the north of England Keighley's record in Domesday Book is one of "waste" and confiscated into the hands of King William following the "harrowing of the north".

The Church

St Andrew's church stands on the eastern side of Church Street within a large open square, as can be seen the present church is a relatively recent edition and not the venue that these marriages would have been recorded, in fact it is the 3rd iteration on the same site following a medieval original and an 1805 replacement. Today's church was completed in 1848 and is built in the sturdy rendition of the Perpendicular style. As befits the size of its congregation it is a big church, the nave is of 6-bays and comes with aisles and arcades, the chancel is slightly lower but the western tower is a statement piece and a landmark across the town. Despite the church sitting within a large dedicated space, there are many trees taking up the favoured aspects and limiting the views available to the photographer. Needless to say, given it urban setting, it is a church to visit on foot after finding a car park.