The name of the Catholic Church in Keighley up to the Reformation was known as St. Andrew and in the intervening centuries very few held on to the faith.

In the early 1820’s it is recorded that there was a French emigrant priest called Fr. Rashedale who ministered to the needs of the Catholics in Keighley. He returned to France and the few Catholics had then to go to Myddleton Lodge at Ilkley. In 1823 a Fr. Burgess came from Myddleton Lodge to say Mass in Keighley at the home of Mr. Jack Carr. He continued to come until 1835 when Fr. Hampson O.S.B. was appointed to set up a mission in Keighley. Mass was then said in an upper room in Queen St. opposite the Queen St. Arms.

By 1836 land had been acquired and in 1837 Fr. Gibson built the present presbytery.

1837 Welby Pugin was asked to draw up plans for a Church. He was highly acclaimed throughout the land. The estimated cost to build the Church was £1,620. It was opened in November 1840.

The Parish began to grow and a school was opened in 1857. As a result of the potato famine in Ireland in 1846 a great number of emigrants arrived in the town. This put great pressure both on the Church and the school. The school was extended on a number of occasions

By 1886 the Catholic population had grown to 3000 and 600 children were attending the school.

By 1907 the Church had been extended (almost doubled in length) and turned around so that the altar was in the west end as it is today.

During the period 1835 to the present day, there has been 13 Parish Priests. During the same period there has been 44 Assistant Priests. Alas there has not been any Assistant appointed since 1995. The present Parish priest is Fr. Sean Gilligan who was appointed in 2000.

In the town there are now 4 Parishes, that includes Howarth.

During its history the Parish has welcomed not only the Irish immigrants but later on the Italians, Poles, Slovenians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Latvians Czechoslovakians and most recently in 2002 the Indians from Kerala, S. India as well as new influx of migrant workers from Easter Europe. This as a result of the countries that joined the EEC in the alst year or so.

The Parish like the Church in general has experienced much change in the last 35 years. Some have proved beneficial while others have produced no positive results at least to the visible eye. So we focus on what is good and are people of hope about the future.

The Parish continues on its pilgrim way.

In 2004 a new heating system was installed in the Church. The replaced the original system which

had no work done on it apart boiler replacement. The cost which included some repair work associated with the installation cost with fees £98,000.

Now there are two more phases which will cost about £300,000. We are frantically fundraising and hope that someone may come up with a substantial sum to free us of debt. We are now glad to report that al that remains to be raised for the two phases is £42,000. We have a further £200,000 to raise in order to reorder the Church on the inside and decorate it.

July 2010 will mark the 175 anniversary of the founding of the Parish. The dream is to have all the work by that date.

Donations will be gratfully received and acknowledged. Make all payable to St. Anne's Church Keighley and forward to Canon Sean Gilligan, St. Anne's presbytery, North Street, Keighley BD21 3AD