THE wife-rocking cradle of the Keighley Hen-Pecked Club, now in Cliffe Castle, is seen here outside the older museum in Victoria Park.
The Keighley Hen-Pecked Club was started in the 1860s by the landlord of the Royal Oak Inn at Damside, Henry Hargreaves Thompson, better known as Harry Tap. The rules in his club parodied those of the friendly societies of the time:
"Every member of this Club shall work from six o'clock in the morning till nine at night, and fetch the various articles required for household management."
Any member fulfilling the rules but still being nagged could apply for the loan of the cradle, six feet long by two feet wide, in which the cross wife was fastened and rocked. It should be stressed that this was all in fun – there is no record of the cradle actually being used!
Henry Hargreaves Thompson went on to run the White Horse Brewery in Halifax Road, dying in 1877 aged 54. He had been "a liberal giver to many charities".
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