A NUMBER 6 bus bound for Fell Lane goes through Worth Village in the days when it was a thriving community supporting its own substantial branch of the Keighley Industrial Co-operative Society (which opened a reading-room in 1891 when Keighley itself had no public library), a Working Men’s Club whose domino team won “the Airedale Club and Institute Union Trophy outright” in 1952, and Methodist, Primitive Methodist and Baptist places of worship.

The big Worth Baptist Chapel is seen here on the left.

In 1872, William Craven, a local preacher at Slack Baptists, who combined a Worth Village grocer’s shop with a job at Aireworth Mill, had started a cottage Sunday School in what was then a growing suburb.

Although the venture initially attracted only four scholars, this paved the way for a purpose-built school-chapel or mission station.

Clergy and worshippers from the Keighley mother church at Albert Street walked in procession to the laying of its foundation stones in 1873.

By the time extensions were being planned 20 years later, the Worth Baptist Sunday School had 205 scholars on its registers – although, on average, only 135 attended on Sunday mornings and 150 in the afternoons!

Alas, by 1980, closed due to lack of support, the building was being considered for industrial or warehousing use.

The photograph has been supplied by Kevin Seaton, of Shann Lane, Keighley.