Keighley College is a further education college in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England. It traces its origins to Keighley Mechanics' Institute, founded in 1825. [1] [2] It has previoiusly been part of Park Lane College Leeds and Leeds City College, branded as their Keighley Campus, but is now a freestanding college, within the Luminate Education Group. [3]
Keighley Mechanics' Institute was founded in 1825 as "a society for mutual instruction, and to establish a library for that purpose". Patrick Brontë, father of the literary sisters, became a member in 1833, and his daughters attended a lecture there by his curate William Weighton in 1840. [2] The institute opened a new building in 1834, holding a concert with professional musicians to celebrate. [2]
This original building, on the corner of North Street and Bow Street, was outgrown by the 1869s and a new building was built at the junction of North Street and Cavendish Street. The foundation stone was laid by Isaac Holden on 12 December 1868 and it was opened by the Duke of Devonshire on 30 September 1870. Keighley Trade School and Art School was established there in 1871. [4] A report in The Builder in 1871 describes Keighley Trade School, and declares that it "inaugurates a new era in the educational history of the neighbourhood", with activities including science lectures and art classes. [5]
Nikolaus Pevsner described the building as "By Lockwood & Mawson, 1868, N. extension 1887. Gothic with a tower. The dominating building of Keighley", but notes in the Addenda that the building was damaged by fire in 1962 and that in 1964 "plans ... were being discussed to replace the building with an extension to the Technical College". [6]
The building was demolished in 1967, despite local protest. [7]
A new building for Keighley Technical College was built in 1955-1956, described by Pevsner as "By Hubert Bennett, the then County Architect. Next to the Mechanics' Institute. A building of moderate size and wholly up-to-date style. Stone and glass, of pleasing composition." [6] It was linked by a corridor footbridge across Lord Street to the older building. [8]
In 2007, the college merged with Park Lane College Leeds to become Park Lane College Leeds and Keighley, which then merged into Leeds City College in 2009. [9] The Keighley site was known as the Keighley Campus. [2]
In 2010, the college opened a new £30 million campus, near Keighley railway station, moving away from the former site on Cavendish Street, which was in need of repair and has since been demolished.
The college provides courses for A-levels. T-Levels, vocational qualifications, apprenticeships, adult education, and special education. [10]
The college includes an Industrial Centre of Excellence and a nationally acclaimed Star Centre facility, [11] designed to encourage more young people to study STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). This features a mock mission control centre, a planetarium, a simulated rocky planet surface and many other space-related items.
The Minister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, Robert Halfon, visited the college in October 2023 as part of the "Love Our Colleges" campaign. [12]
Haworth is a village in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, in the Pennines, 3 miles (5 km) south-west of Keighley, 10 miles (16 km) west of Bradford and 10 miles (16 km) east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope. Nearby villages include Cross Roads, Stanbury and Lumbfoot.
Keighley is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford.
Mechanics' institutes, also known as mechanics' institutions, sometimes simply known as institutes, and also called schools of arts, were educational establishments originally formed to provide adult education, particularly in technical subjects, to working men in Victorian-era Britain and its colonies. They were often funded by local industrialists on the grounds that they would ultimately benefit from having more knowledgeable and skilled employees. The mechanics' institutes often included libraries for the adult working class, and were said to provide them with an alternative pastime to gambling and drinking in pubs.
Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in the city centre and Headingley. The university's origins can be traced to 1824, with the foundation of the Leeds Mechanics Institute. Leeds Polytechnic was formed in 1970, and was part of the Leeds Local Education Authority until it became an independent Higher Education Corporation on 1 April 1989. In 1992, the institution gained university status. The current name was adopted in September 2014.
Birkbeck, University of London, is a research university, in Bloomsbury London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. Established in 1823 as the London Mechanics' Institute by its founder, Sir George Birkbeck, and its supporters, Jeremy Bentham, J. C. Hobhouse and Henry Brougham, Birkbeck is one of the few universities to specialise in evening higher education in the United Kingdom.
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Leeds City College is the largest further education establishment in the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England with around 26,000 students, 2,300 staff, with an annual turnover of £78 million. It officially opened on 1 April 2009. The College was granted official status in January 2009 and was formed from three large colleges, Park Lane College, Leeds Thomas Danby College and Leeds College of Technology.
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