A WELL-REMEMBERED Keighley business was Gott and Butterfield’s, later Frank Butterfield (Keighley) Ltd, in the Royal Arcade, Low Street. Here is the shop-front when run simply by William Gott.
William Gott had started his ironmongery in 1890, moving into the Royal Arcade in 1901 and taking Frank Butterfield into partnership in 1910, branching out into household goods, bicycles and eventually camping equipment. The firm became Frank Butterfield Ltd in 1917.
At the time of its closure in 1983, director Walter Greenwood had been associated with the firm for 62 years and co-director Harry Holmes for 46 years. The premises were affectionately known as “an Aladdin’s cave”.
“We never threw anything away right from the start,” Harry Holmes admitted. Keighley Library took away four handcart-loads of documents, ledgers and order-books, while Cliffe Castle displayed an accumulation of old advertisements and such between-the-wars commodities as oxyacetylene refills for bicycle lamps!
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