WILLIAM Wright (1836-1897), better known as Bill o' th' Hoylus End, grins in caricature from the cover of his Howorth, Cowenheead, an Bogthorn Almenak for 1873.
By turns warpdresser, soldier, sailor, actor, showman, man about town and most consistently homely writer, Bill o' th Hoylus End recorded the life of Victorian Keighley and district in racy prose and verse, most famously in his History o' Haworth Railway.
Between 1873 and 1879 he produced his annual Howorth, Cowenheead, an Bogthorn Almenak, a mixture of dialect jokes, poems and stories which preserve some historical details otherwise overlooked.
For example, the pig breeders for which Exley Head used to be notable are described, "sum skrachin, sum weshin, and some givin t' pigs meyl balls, wal uthers are amusin thersell wi pig argiments an pigology."
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