“BACK Aireworth Street people can always rise to the occasion,” commented the Keighley News in 1937.
Here they are in May of that year, decorating their homes in honour of the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
By the time they had finished, Back Aireworth Street, off South Street, boasted a “profusion of bunting, streamers, pennants, balloons and every conceivable type of red, white, and blue decoration”, winning a £3 prize from a Coronation Committee of Keighley Corporation. Thousands came from all over town to view it, from whom £10 was collected for Victoria Hospital. The residents put their prize-money towards treating neighbourhood children to a trip to Bridlington.
This community spirit was to become a casualty of progress – the last house in Aireworth Street was demolished in 1973. The site is now occupied by Farish House (named, incidentally, after John Farish, a founder in 1825 of the Keighley Mechanics’ Institute).
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