Advertisements from the
Cross Hills and Silsden Almanac
– selected issues 1898 to 1918
The History Group has recently been given scanned copies of “Cross Hills and
Silsden Almanac” for a number of years 1898 to 1918, by Keighley and District
Digital Archive.
The almanac is mostly made up of advertisements for local businesses. Most of
these are for businesses in Crosshills, Silsden, and some of the larger stores in
Keighley.
However, there are some for businesses in Farnhill and Kildwick which provide an
interesting insight into the two communities.
William Sugden was the major coal
merchant for Farnhill and Kildwick. He
lived in the house which is now used as
Kildwick vicarage.
This advertisement was placed in the
1898 issue of the Almanac.
Another full-page advertisement. This
from the 1904 issue.
This advertisement for Sugden’s was in the 1912 issue. It looks as if the business was
one of the first in the area to get a telephone.
A coal wagon, unnamed but perhaps Sugden’s, at Kildwick corner. In the foreground a
wagon owned by William Green, the Farnhill butcher. We estimate the date of this
photograph to be between 1910 and 1920.
Another Kildwick coal merchant. This advertisement is from 1900.
This from 1904.
And this is Baldwin’s advertisement from 1909.
And yet another coal merchant. This advertisement is from 1915.
Robert Laycock’s advertisement from the 1918 almanac.
If you didn’t want to be troubled by all that
messy coal you could always get a gas fire
from the Kildwick Parish Gas Company.
This is their 1912 advertisement.
Coke was a by-product of the production of gas
from coal and was sold for domestic heating.
This is the Gas Company’s 1915 advertisement.
The Kildwick Parish gas works were located
behind Church Terrace, Crosshills, and
operated between 1878 and 1955.
Another advertisement from the 1898 almanac.
Another painting and decorating business. This
advertisement from 1904.
“The Harbour” was the old name for The
Arbour.
Anaglypta is still with us (sadly if you’re trying
to get it off !) but does anyone remember
Lignomur or Lincrusta ?
Death is always with us and, in each of the issues of the almanac from 1909, Seth
Tillotson advertised his monumental masonry business. This is the 1909 advertisement.
The J.H. Tillotson mentioned in the advertisements was Seth’s father; he had died in
1903. His brother, Robert, died in 1904. This is the 1912 advertisement.
Seth’s father, John Hartley Tillotson, had come to Kildwick from Haworth in the
nineteenth century, where he had been sexton to Patrick Bronte. This is the 1915
advertisement.
This is the 1918 advertisement.
John Hartley Tillotson, centre, with his wife and just some of their many children outside
their home opposite the White Lion in Kildwick.
Albert Kitson advertised his joinery business in each issue from 1912 onwards.
We don’t know whereabouts in Main Street the joinery works was located. Was it the
same joinery, located behind Hellifield House, that was used in WW2 to manufacture
wooden air-frames for Mosquito fighter aircraft ? This is the 1915 advertisement.
Albert Kitson died in 1918, the year of this advertisement, but the joinery business was
continued by his son Herbert.
Birtwhistle’s grocery shop was on the corner of Newby Road and Mary Street. Their only
advertisement in the almanac was in 1915.
Photograph showing Birtwhistle’s grocery shop.
Farnhill’s other main grocery shop was in Main Street. Half of the double-fronted
premises was run as a grocery by Heaton Mosley; the other half was a cobbler’s and
shoe shop run by his brother John.
Heaton Mosley put this advertisement in the 1900 Almanac.
Chapel Terrace - although the current Chapel, built in the late 1890s, is much further up
Main Street, the Methodists’ previous building was adjacent to 15/17 Main Street.
By 1904, when this full-page advertisement was taken out, Chapel Terrace had changed
its name to Exchange Buildings.
John Mosley advertised each year from 1912.
John Mosley’s 1915 advertisement.
John Mosley’s 1918 advertisement.
Acknowledgements
The Farnhill and Kildwick Local History Group would like to thank Keighley and
District Digital Archive for their help in the creation of this slideshow, and for
their continued support.
The various photographs were provided by villagers as part of the “Preserving our
Village Past” event held in October 2013. Thank you, everybody.