Exhibition lead to doubling bonus (From Keighley News)

Exhibition lead to doubling bonus

7:30am Thursday 4th June 2009

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At the end of November in 1949 there was a “Keighley for Britain” exhibition in the Drill Hall, its post-war objects being to “stimulate the people of Keighley to greater production and to more stringent saving”, while showing “at a glance almost” what Keighley industries were capable of.

The 50 exhibitors included such former well-known names as Prince-Smith and Stells, the Rustless Iron Company and the Airedale Dyeing Company, and notable survivors like Timothy Taylor and Co.

The organisers had hoped for an attendance during the week of 50,000, and in the event netted 42,925. The Elma Manufacturing Co, of Oakworth, credited the exhibition for their achieving a record production per man-hour and doubled their workers’ bonus.

West Riding civic heads were invited. This group included — distinguishable by their chains of office — the Mayor and Mayoress of Keighley, Councillor and Mrs G S Mason, and the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Alderman Norman D Vine, seated on the left, with his wife, the Lady Mayoress, standing behind him. In a speech he observed how in Keighley “a good percentage of goods were for the export trade”.

The photograph has been supplied by Mrs Ann M Riches, of Copmanthorpe, York. Alderman Vine, a Leeds chartered accountant, was her uncle.

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