SIR – In order to save Allen Kemp’s sanity (Letters, August 23) I shall explain the mystery.
Keighley appears in Domesday Book as Chichelai, a phonetic rendering of Cyhhaleah (Cyhha’s woodland clearing). The most common spelling of the name is Kyghley and then Kighley, the additional ‘e’ in the present version not appearing until about the beginning of the 19th century.
Each version preserves the ‘k’ sound of the ‘c’. The guttural sound of the ‘gh’, which should be pronounced as in Leigh, preserves the ‘h’ sound. Modern usage, however, has softened it into ‘Keithley’.
G Hutton, Oakdale Drive, Bradford
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