Alderman W A Brigg and Miss S Cockshott, members of the Board of Governors of the Keighley Drake and Tonson's School, lay the foundation- stone of its successor, the Girls' Grammar School, on July 17, 1931. Also present at the ceremony were the chairman of the West Riding Higher Education Committee, R M Grylls, headmistress Mrs Margaret Kirk, and Sir F W L Butterfield of Cliffe Castle, whose estate had included the Stoneycroft Lane site.
Mr Grylls, whilst acknowledging "a great day in the educational development of the Keighley district", made what would now seem the obvious comment that "the education of women was of as great importance as the education of men". Alderman Brigg raised a laugh when he said the school "had never been in better fettle, never had a better head mistress, a better set of teachers, nor a better set of girls, than today."
The new Keighley Girls' Grammar School at Utley was officially opened by Lord Halifax in 1934. At the time it was intended to build a boys' school on an adjoining site and in a similar style, but this was not to be.
The photograph was supplied by Mr Michael Shearing, of High Spring Gardens Lane, Keighley.
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