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menofworth.bsky.social
Men of Worth Project
@menofworth.bsky.social
860 followers 780 following 1.1K posts
Andy Wade, Historian. Author.
We research Keighley & Worth Valley people who served in wartime. We remember their service and try to ensure they’re not forgotten. Est. 2001, QAVS 2021.
www.menofworth.org.uk
Alt text: Embroidered badge, says ‘MEN OF WORTH'
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menofworth.bsky.social
Visited there in summer 2024, to photograph the 49 graves of German prisoners of war who were from Raikeswood Camp near #Skipton and moved from Morton Cemetery, #Keighley, after the war. Most of them had died in the influenza epidemic in 1918 and 1919. #FWW #WW1 #Prisoners
A plot of rectangular headstones made from slate, at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. They are surrounded by immaculately kept grass. It was a very sunny day. A plot of rectangular headstones made from slate, at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. They are surrounded by immaculately kept grass. It was a very sunny day. A plot of rectangular headstones made from slate, at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. They are surrounded by immaculately kept grass. It was a very sunny day. In the foreground is a very large wooden cross as a war memorial. A plot of rectangular headstones made from slate, at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. They are surrounded by immaculately kept grass. It was a very sunny day.
December 8, 2025 at 9:00 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
Just added a section from the local newspaper describing the solemn mass at St. Anne's Church shortly after they dedicated their Great War Memorial. The memorial is one of #Keighley's finest and their ceremony must have been quite an occasion:

menofworth.org.uk/memorials/st...

#GreatWar #WW1 #FWW
A beautiful war memorial which is on permanent display in the entrance to St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church at Keighley. It is made from salmon pink alabaster and light grey bath stone with the lettering picked out in gold. There are 121 names of local men from the church who died during the First World War.
December 5, 2025 at 1:43 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
We’ll that’s all the #Oakworth #Remembrance Trail boards down. Just got to clean them and get them packed away. At least three seem to have been stolen from the lampposts?
www.menofworth.org.uk/trail
A big pile of white A3 size lamppost display boards in the back of a minibus. A lamppost affixed with an A3 size display board which tells the story of a local man who died in the First World War. It’s near his house.
November 30, 2025 at 5:37 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
You're most welcome. The Fleece Inn is also the home of the Haworth Prize Band. Taken shortly after the Great War along with a small roll of honour, and only recently found in a band room cupboard.
I bet quite a few of them were no strangers to the odd pint of @timothytaylors.bsky.social beer...
Twenty one men of the Haworth Prize band in a group photograph taken in the early 1920s. There are three rows of men and they are all in uniform and caps with a white diagonal sash, with a brass instrument in front of each man. A small printed war memorial for the Haworth Prize Band roll of honour for the European War of 1914 - 1919. There are 19 names of the band members who served. The decorations are flags and scrolls with a barefoot lady in a full length green dress, holding a laurel wreath over the names.
November 24, 2025 at 5:31 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
You need to set your sights higher, this is at Undercliffe Cemetery:
Several massive mausoleums and gravestones at Underliffe Cemetery in Bradford. The nearest one is for the Illingworth family. It is a large grey polished granite 'temple' building, with two beautifully carved sphynx guarding the barred entrance door.
November 24, 2025 at 5:19 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
The Hollindrake family grave at Haworth Cemetery is another. So much effort has gone into it:
A carved gravestone in the shape of a tree trunk with branches, leaves, flowers and a ribbon containing the words: 'In Loving Memory Of.' This is the Hollindrake family grave at Haworth Cemetery for Joseph, Annie and their daughter Ruth Hollindrake. At the bottom is a war memorial inscription to their son William who was killed in the 1914 - 1918 Great War and has no known grave after he went missing near Cambrai.
November 24, 2025 at 4:47 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
Some details of the #Bradford Wool Exchange. A grade one listed building which is the setting for #Waterstones Bookshop. I wonder how many people look up at the beautiful ceiling?
A beautiful arched timber framed ceiling inside the Bradford Wool Exchange building. There is a six pointed star window at the end and at the bottom of the image, rows of bookshelves. A section of tiled wall with a double diamond pattern in green tiles. The centre of each diamond is filled with colourful tiles forming a flower design.
November 20, 2025 at 10:52 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
Currently working on the story of Lance Corporal Albert Mewburn Bradshaw, who died being transported in the Japanese Hell ship ‘Ho Kuru Maru’ which was sunk by torpedo bombers in 1944. A story of needless cruelty.

RIP.

See if you can find his name on Keighley’s Second World War memorial panel…
Newspaper cutting featuring Lance Corporal Albert Mewburn Bradshaw who died on a Japanese hell ship in 1944. It includes his portrait photo in uniform. A bronze war memorial panel on the fallen from Keighley in the Second World War. There are six columns and 275 names. It is on the wall at Keighley Library.
November 11, 2025 at 10:28 AM
menofworth.bsky.social
From an episode of Dr Who (the one with Shakespeare and the witches at the Globe Theatre)

"The power of a name. That's Old Magic..."
David Tennant as Dr Who: 'The power of a name. That's Old Magic...'
November 9, 2025 at 6:01 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
I looked twice at that...
A Manta Ray in silhouette, viewed looking up to the surface. It is black and encircled by the blue water.
November 8, 2025 at 10:03 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
Here’s a few of our #Oakworth #Remembrance Trail information boards about local men who died in the First and Second World Wars, placed near to their former homes during the Remembrance period. They will be up until the end of November.

More here: www.menofworth.org.uk/trail

#FWW #SWW #WW1 #WW2
An A3 size plastic board fixed to a lamp post. It is part of our Oakworth Remembrance Trail which has placed 96 boards near to the former homes of men who were killed in the First and Second World Wars. They will be up for the whole of November 2025. This is at Elmwood Terrace. An A3 size plastic board fixed to a lamp post. It is part of our Oakworth Remembrance Trail which has placed 96 boards near to the former homes of men who were killed in the First and Second World Wars. They will be up for the whole of November 2025. This is at Commercial Street. An A3 size plastic board fixed to a lamp post. It is part of our Oakworth Remembrance Trail which has placed 96 boards near to the former homes of men who were killed in the First and Second World Wars. They will be up for the whole of November 2025. This is at Oakworth Hall. An A3 size plastic board fixed to a lamp post. It is part of our Oakworth Remembrance Trail which has placed 96 boards near to the former homes of men who were killed in the First and Second World Wars. They will be up for the whole of November 2025. This is at Oakworth Hall.
November 4, 2025 at 8:37 AM
menofworth.bsky.social
Yesterday we launched our #Oakworth #Remembrance #Trail. We installed 96 boards on lamp-posts around our village, next to, or close to the homes of the Oakworth men who died in the first and second world wars. A QR Code guides visitors to their biographies on our website:
www.menofworth.org.uk/trail
Seven out of the eight adult volunteers who came out to install the 96 Oakworth Remembrance Trail Boards on Thursday 30th October 2025. Each volunteer is holding a white A3 sized correx board printed with details of a serviceman who died in either the First or the Second World Wars, which will go on to lamp-posts near their homes from before they enlisted. Behind this group is a large laurel hedge and a drystone wall. A man is standing in front of a stage in a village hall and he is holding a clipboard. He is talking to a large group of people seated on several rows of chairs, many of whom are Army Cadets and Sea Cadets in uniform. Nobody has fallen asleep, yet...
October 31, 2025 at 8:54 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
It's a terrific exhibit! Loads of interpretation boards and a video on loop inside. It's well worth a visit!
An interpretation panel for HMS M.33, showing a cutaway view of the insides of the ship. HMS M.33. A small ship in dry dock, with black and white dazzle camouflage from the WW1 era. This photo is taken looking at the starboard bow, with the whole ship in view.
October 23, 2025 at 11:00 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
Wonderful.
My phone wallpaper is the Giotto di Bondone - Starry Sky, 1305, it’s at the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.

I find it rather comforting.
An azure blue ceiling with a regular pattern of golden, eight pointed stars.
October 10, 2025 at 6:09 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
Lovely. I wish I had the patience to make one...
This is a lovely sea creature from floor of the Musée Océanographique at Monaco. Instantly fell in love with it.
musee.oceano.org/en/
A large mosaic crab on the floor of the Oceanographic Museum at Monaco. It's about a metre across and is a brick red colour, on a white background superimposed by a fishing net pattern.
September 30, 2025 at 5:47 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
Looking into a local soldier who cut his own throat (off duty) He survived and was SNLR'd in 1908 (served 8 years.)
He spent a month at Wakefield Asylum and was discharged as 'not insane.'
Normally he would be in the Reserve for 5 years, but I am wondering if the circumstances and SNLR negated that?
A cropped image from an Army Service record from 1908 which states: Incised wound, throat. 26 Jan 1908. (not on duty) Cropped image from a 1908 Lunacy Patients Admission Register, which states that a man was 'not insane.'
September 27, 2025 at 7:04 AM
menofworth.bsky.social
Jürgen Prochnow as the captain in Das Boot.
September 25, 2025 at 1:38 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
Took a small box of shiny things for them all to handle… Nobody guessed the button stick!
Several WW2 era items such as uniform badges and buttons plus an air raid warden’s lamp for children at a school to look at.
September 23, 2025 at 8:28 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
For #Keighley #WalkingFestival today I’m taking a group to the #Oakworth crash site of Wellington BK387 where 6 Canadian airmen died 2/1/1944.
I’ll be sharing witness accounts and showing the twisted trees in Tewitt Hall Wood. #WW2 #SWW

https://menofworth.org.uk/memorials/canadianmemorialoakworth/
A coloured drawing of a Vickers Wellington Bomber mark 3 it’s cutaways showing some of the inside areas. A coloured map of England showing the route taken by a Wellington Bomber on the evening of its fatal crash in Yorkshire. Six Canadian crew member’s photographs of Wellington Bomber BK387. They are all in their Royal Canadian Air Force uniforms and their names are Glass, McHenry, Henfrey, Dalling, Crawford and Savage.
September 14, 2025 at 6:02 AM
menofworth.bsky.social
Finally got around to looking at the first bag of books:
Nine books about war by different writers.
September 7, 2025 at 2:49 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
This is perhaps my favourite photo from the Men of Worth archives!
Norman Walbank of Oakworth served with the #SeaforthHighlanders and even named one of his sons after his regiment. Doesn't he look splendid in his #kilt and glengarry?

Read his #FWW #WW1 story here: menofworth.org.uk/norman-walba...
A black and white studio photograph from the First World War period, of a man wearing a Scottish soldiers uniform and kilt, with a glengarry cap. He is Private Norman Walbank of the Seaforth Highlanders.
September 4, 2025 at 7:32 AM
menofworth.bsky.social
The Long Arm of Coincidence!

William Roe of #Oakworth & George Roe of Heckmondwike. A strange coincidence, 2 unrelated men, joined up/served/promoted together, killed in action in the same shell explosion. #FWW #WW1
Read their stories:

menofworth.org.uk/william-roe/

menofworth.org.uk/george-roe/
A newspaper cutting about William and George Roe: Keighley News report: OAKWORTH. “THE LONG ARM OF COINCIDENCE.” The “Long arm of coincidence” has seldom stretched further during the war than in the case of two soldiers names Roe – one, Will Roe, of Bogthorn, Oakworth; the other, George Roe, of White Lea, Heckmondwike. They had no traceable relationship, both were 20 years of age, both worked for a cooperative society; joined the colours on the same day, were drafted to the same regiment, became chums, received their lance-corporal stripe on the same day, were buried by the same shell on one occasion, and met their death at the same moment by another shell last month. A 1917 newspaper picture of a British soldier in uniform, he is wearing a service cap with the badge of the West Yorkshire Regiment. A 1917 newspaper picture of a British soldier in uniform, he is wearing a service cap with the badge of the West Yorkshire Regiment.
September 2, 2025 at 1:20 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
Really moved by the desperation of a family searching for their son. Pte. Pickles went missing, disappeared into the mud.
They wrote to the Red Cross to see if he was a prisoner of war. Sadly it was a no, but they held on to hope, engraving it on their family grave:

menofworth.org.uk/harry-pickles/
A dark granite stepped gravestone base with an inscription which reads: Also of Pte. Harry Pickles, Beloved son of W & Z Pickles. Died a prisoner of war 1918, Aged 40 years.
August 31, 2025 at 6:19 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
Just added the story to our blog, of Private Fred Coates:
menofworth.org.uk/fred-coates/
Born in #Oakworth and lived in #Cross-Roads / Lees, Fred was a gardener and had worked for the Lord Mayor of Leeds before the war.
He died of wounds in Sept 1917 and left a widow and two children. #FWW #WW1
A newspaper photograph of a man wearing Army uniform and the badge of the Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment on his cap. He had a wide waxed moustache. A dark wood frame enclosing a polished white marble plaque which has 13 names in black lettering. It reads: In Memory of the men connected with this church who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War. 1914 - 1918. Ellis Bailey Horatio Claughton Frank Clayton Fred Coates Betie Colledge George H. Earnshaw Arthur Hutchinson Harry Jowett Harry Mitchell Luther J. Murgatroyd Sam Schofield Walter Wagstaff George G. F. Wane "Greater love hath no man than this."
August 17, 2025 at 7:56 PM
menofworth.bsky.social
Just added the story of Seaman George Sanderson from #Oakworth, who was killed in #WW2 during the sinking of #HMSDaring on 18th February 1940. We have included a transcribed letter George wrote home in 1939:
menofworth.org.uk/george-sande...

#SecondWorldWar #SWW
A Royal Navy seaman in uniform standing on a hill overlooking fields and boundary walls. A cat is standing at his feet.
August 16, 2025 at 10:13 PM