This film is part of Free

Wedding at Keighley

Nobody would guess, watching the celebrations for this happy couple of newlyweds, that within a month Britain would be engaged in a world war.

Home movie 1939 13 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for Yorkshire Film Archive

Overview

It is just a month before the outbreak of war in September 1939 when this young couple get married in Keighley, and one wonders what became of them. Both are clearly from well-to-do local families, judging by the guests and the reception. They were among many who got married in the face of the impending war, and in the first years of the war, when there was a significant rise in marriages.

It isn’t known who took this film, presumably a family member of one of the newlyweds. Nor is there any information on the family, other than records which show that Mary Margaret Newsholme was born on 19 July, 1909 in Keighley, and died in 1977 in Ilkley, and her husband, Roland Oswald Inman was born in 1904 in Bradford, and died in 1992 in Chichester, West Sussex. The church is presumably St. Andrew's, which dates back to the 12th century and is now Keighley Shared Church, with Methodists joining the Anglican congregation in 1975. The Withens, where the reception is held, is presumably the large home of either the groom or the bride.

Subjects