Farewell to Keighley Bus Museum

[WYBS]

*sourced from a Facebook post on the 'Keighley Bus Museum Trust Ltd' group*

The Keighley Bus Museum Trust appears to have been served its notice by the landlord of their Riverside premises and therefore will be moving out and looking for a new storage facility in the future. The post states that there is currently no suitable buildings local to Keighley and that the organisation may have to look further afield.

The 7th August '30th Anniversary' event will still be taking place.

I suggest that anyone with queries should contact the trust directly.

[Bradford Traveller]

FYI the full post

From KBMT News. Firstly welcome to all our old and new facebook friends, now standing at 1.5k!. As editor and media Director, it is with regret that I must clarify the Museums current position. The Trust (Museum), are being served notice to remove all vehicles and belongings from the premises. At this moment in time we are still honouring our August 7th 30year Anniversary event and ask that you (the public) continue to show the extraordinary support you have in all our previous events. The Board have been actively looking for alternative suitable accommodation capable of housing 100plus vehicles. We will not abandon our private vehicle owners, however for a short period the Trust may have to secure two smaller buildings for such a task. Unfortunately, no such premises exist in Keighley, so we are having to look further afield at the moment. Speaking on behalf of the Board of Trustees, I would like to thank the general public from all over the country (and further!), the people of keighley, and most importantly the residents at Riverside for their tremendous support and understanding as we carried out our endeavours at the Museum.
As a final farewell of what may be our last ever event in the town, the admission entry will be returned to £3.00 (under 16's free). Also on sale will be the remainder of the Bradford booklets from March at £4.00 and I am currently compiling another book on the Trust (30years) for the event price to be announced. All proceeds as usual goes to the Trust, now to try to continue to provide a secure home for all our vehicles. Finally a big thank you to all (or as many as I could fit in!) co-Directors/Chairman members and friends who by bringing their own thoughts and expertise to the events table have by far and above created a wonderful atmosphere at Riverside, and happy memories for the younger (and older) visitors.
I shall continue updating this and our website as time progresses.
Thank you all once again for your support.
Mick Berry [e-mail]

[joseph]

The big problem with the museum is the building itself, it puts a lot of people off. Then you've got the issue with how stale each event is, same buses, same old town trips on open days, nothing refreshingly new such as, for example, rural mystery tours every hour for a much higher entry price, split 50 50 between the bus owner and museum. Oh and not forgetting the many who visit and don't pay because they have been allowed to by way of no staff watching on the gate! With a lot of aggressive business thinking, including wringing out cash from the local council, this museum would have moved out to better premises ages ago. You may well say the council won't pay, but Keighley frankly is a massive dump and needs all the visitor attractions it can get to bring in the money, this museum, as dump as it is, brings in many visitors to the town at every event, without this museum then the recent transport event would have been harder to promote for a start. The museum need to approach the local councilors with aggression, tell them straight approximately how many people visit the museum per event, then tell them would they still come if it wasn't there? The railway has it's draw, so too does Cliffe Castle, and you probably see many combining both attractions, but the bus museum has a significant fan base attracted to that attraction only, so the council need telling to dip fingers in the till or lose visitors.

[WYBS]

Jun 10, 2022 20:41:21 GMT 1 joseph said:

The big problem with the museum is the building itself, it puts a lot of people off. Then you've got the issue with how stale each event is, same buses, same old town trips on open days, nothing refreshingly new such as, for example, rural mystery tours every hour for a much higher entry price, split 50 50 between the bus owner and museum. Oh and not forgetting the many who visit and don't pay because they have been allowed to by way of no staff watching on the gate! With a lot of aggressive business thinking, including wringing out cash from the local council, this museum would have moved out to better premises ages ago. You may well say the council won't pay, but Keighley frankly is a massive dump and needs all the visitor attractions it can get to bring in the money, this museum, as dump as it is, brings in many visitors to the town at every event, without this museum then the recent transport event would have been harder to promote for a start. The museum need to approach the local councilors with aggression, tell them straight approximately how many people visit the museum per event, then tell them would they still come if it wasn't there? The railway has it's draw, so too does Cliffe Castle, and you probably see many combining both attractions, but the bus museum has a significant fan base attracted to that attraction only, so the council need telling to dip fingers in the till or lose visitors.

I think a name change wouldn't hurt either. The 'West Yorkshire Bus Museum', or dare I say it: 'Yorkshire Bus Museum'.

More open days, more integration with the heritage railway that's right on their doorstep and an improved social media presence. Having a private Facebook group is no use to potential visitors.

[576 Gemini 2]

The trolleybuses at Keighley could end up going to Sandtoft, hope the fleet can stay in Yorkshire

[joseph]

Talking of trolley busses, and the KWVR next door, I wonder why KBMT have never proper got involved with the Haworth 1940s weekend events? They have buses what ran in the 40s, and some which are runners or runners that were around close enough to the 40s. The combination of the vintage trains running to Keighley, and 1940s buses running from the KWVR to locations beyond, this event could have involved more locations in the Keighley area making it a bigger attraction, as well as given the museum a major event to bring in potentially new visitors too.

[WYBS]

The Trust's final running day at their Riverside home took place yesterday. It was far busier than rallies that have taken place there over the past few years.

Here are a couple of photos.

Attachments:

[joseph]

Does anybody know what went on at the museum over the past 5 years as stumbled across a disgruntled number of former museum members having a right dig at this museum on a social media page, even accusations of bus theft which turned out to be false lol!