KEIGHLEY'S share of feisty female residents over the decades was revealed to an appreciate audience in Keighley Local Studies Library this month.

Historian Ian Dewhirst staged a well attended presentation shortly before this year's International Women's Day on Thursday March 8.

A spokesman for the Libraries service said: "The talk was very well received by the audience who had braved the icy conditions to hear Ian Dewhirst speak.

"This year is also the 100th anniversary of reforms to the voting system in 1918, where women over 30 years married to a householder or with a degree were given the vote for the first time.

"Ian described the visit of suffragettes, Adela Pankhurst and Mary Kenney to Keighley's Victoria Park on Sunday May 24 1908 where their speeches were drowned out by the singing of popular songs.

"And he explained how the work of women in the First World War had contributed greatly to their being given the vote."

Mr Dewhirst also introduced his audience to Keighley women such as temperance advocate Emma Groves, film star Sandra Dorne and Salvation Army worker Maud Marks.