‘Explore Keighley’ events to show town at its best

Cliffe Castle Museum and Park is holding a weekend of events June 8 and 9 to encourage people to ‘Explore Keighley’.

The weekend is being organised by staff from Bradford Council’s museums and parks departments in partnership with Keighley Town Council.

On Saturday there will be a pop up cinema with two different family films shown on a large screen in front of the bandstand in the park. The first film will be shown at 1pm and the second at 5.30pm.

The cinema experience will be followed on Sunday between 11am and 4pm, with an Explorers Garden Party, a free family day of fun and entertainment, inspired by Cliffe Castle’s ‘A Yorkshireman`s Travels’ exhibition which is currently on display at Cliffe Castle.

The bandstand will host quite possibly its biggest act yet when 100 members of the local Rock Choir take to the stage to entertain the crowds. There will also be a mini fun fair and a local brass band providing music.

Bringing ‘nautical nonsense’ to the event will be street theatre in the form of HMS Punafore. The Victorian masterpiece HMS Pinafore has been beautifully butchered and blatantly blended and is now a wandering maritime musical comedy. The boat and its crew are trying to perform Gilbert and Sullivan's famous comic opera, but it doesn't quite go according to plan.

Over the past few weeks local school children have been taking part in workshops at the museum based on the ‘A Yorkshireman’s Travels’ exhibition, where they have been learning about explorers of the past and going on journeys of adventure and discovering other worlds and cultures. Like the Victorian and Edwardian explorers of the past the children have made their own Explorers Sketchbooks.

One of the local Victorian explorers they have been learning about is Herbert Morley who lived on Devonshire Street in Keighley when he was a young boy. He travelled the world, sending treasures back to Keighley and finally ending up in Fiji. He liked to keep in touch with his family by sending postcards when he could, and children have been encouraged to send postcards when they travel however near or far.

All the children who have taken part in the workshops have been invited to bring their families back to Cliffe Castle for the Explore Keighley Weekend and to share their adventures at the Explorers Garden Party. Families are invited to bring a picnic to the park and take part in this whole community event.

The programme of workshops has been devised by Bradford Council’s Museums and Galleries Learning Team and is supported by the Museums and Schools programme, which is funded by the Department for Education and Managed by the Arts Council.

Dan Palmer, Heritage Parks Officer at Bradford Council, said: “We are really looking forward to welcoming the whole community to the park to share in this fun filled weekend. We’ve held some really successful events at Cliffe Castle recently and I hope these events prove just as popular. The event has been made possible due to the partnership between the town and district council who are working together to celebrate the town and surrounding areas. This Partnership is also looking at bring many more events and activities to Cliffe Castle in the future.”

Coun Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: “These events for will be great fun, encouraging children, local communities and families to make good use of the cultural resources on their door step, as well as, with the help of local schools, discovering new stories about significant local individuals like Keighley’s Victorian explorer Herbert Morley. We are grateful for the support from Keighley Town Council and it will definitely be a weekend not to be missed.”

Deputy Headteacher at Worth Valley Primary School, Mrs Rachael Page, said: “Pupils thoroughly enjoyed investigating the huge range of interesting artefacts from all over the world. The workshop provided a wonderful scaffold from which the children will be able to produce some fantastic writing. They are also looking forward to returning to the Explore Keighley picnic with their families, friends and their Explorers Sketch books.”

Keighley Mayor, Cllr Peter Corkindale, said: “I am excited to be involved in Keighley’s very first ‘Explore Keighley Weekend’, designed for the whole Community to enjoy a fun packed weekend’.