Possibly the earliest known photograph of an actual event in Keighley, this was the official opening of Devonshire Park, occupying nine acres given by the Duke of Devonshire, on September 4, 1888, hailed as "a memorable day in the history" of the town.

As it was a Tuesday and half-day closing, shopkeepers and assistants were able to attend, while some mills gave their workers the afternoon off. The weather was fine except for a short shower, several umbrellas being visible in the left foreground. The crowd is looking towards a platform in the right-hand background where, after the inevitable speeches, Lady Edward Cavendish was given a silver key with which to ceremonially open the gates - "the signal for tremendous cheering" - followed by the National Anthem rendered by Marriner's Brass Band. This was Keighley's first real park -- although Thwaites Brow and Long Lee had acquired a two-acre recreation ground in 1886 -- boasting a band-stand, a terrace with good views, and an "ornamental serpentine lake". While still under construction it had accommodated an estimated 20,000 Sunday School scholars celebrating Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887. The opening of Devonshire Park was commemorated by local poet Bill o' th'Hoylus End:

"This bonny little garden

Is fine for perambulators,

Where our handsome

servant-lasses

Can wheel our lovely creatures,

And oh! how happy they will be!

As time they are beguiling,

When the mammy and the daddy

Are upon the babies smiling."