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A new way of looking at the Hall?

Cottoning-on in Keighley

Now a new play celebrates the links between this grand old house and the town's diverse communities. The National Trust who own the Hall have been working in partnership with Bradford-based Kala Sangam Asian Arts to create a play, Umbole Kahaniyam (Cotton On), and to give Keighley people the opportunity to take part in a range of creative workshops based on stories centred around the Hall itself.

Umbole Kahaniyam uses interviews with people who have worked in the town's textile mills and is based on the idea that there are threads that bind us in a shared history, no matter what our cultural background is.

The interviews in Keighley were carried out by Mandy Precious who has written the play. She says: "ÌýVisiting Keighley and, in particular, the Hall gave me the opportunity to meet people interested in the property, and its history, but also made me think more about how historically important the property is and its place within the local community.

The Untold Story Project...

"Speaking to various local people, I engaged with so many who had different stories and anecdotes of their family and friends over the years and how they have come to identify with the past. As a place Keighley has changed over the last 100 years, but in many ways the level of industry has remained the same and is moving in a new direction thanks to the growing cultural diversity. The story reflects on the shared history that both the local community and the former merchant's house inextricably share."

Jessica Cooke, Learning and Access Officer at East Riddlesden, says: "We wanted to encourage more of the local community to come and visit the Hall, so getting involved with the Untold Story project was a really good way of making links with a variety of local groups and exploring common themes and stories.Ìý Rolling out large felt-made panels for our storytelling tent got people in the groups talking together for the first time.ÌýThe group leaders were delighted.Ìý Then all the stories started to come out, about what they used to do in the textile mills and so on."

This is all part of the Untold Story, a nationwide initiative which aims to work with youth and community groups to find new ways of telling stories associated with National Trust properties.Ìý Project Director Sue Reddish adds: "The Untold Story project at East Riddlesden has been a really special one and we've enjoyed meeting so many local people.Ìý I really hope that the performance does justice to the stories that we've heard from local people, and makes people look at East Riddlesden a bit differently."