The Friends of Silsden Town Hall Win 'Social Enterprise of the Year' 2025

Silsden Town Hall is proud to have won the Social Enterprise of the Year Award at the Keighley and Airedale Business Awards 2025. This award celebrates a social enterprise that has created a positive social or environmental impact within the community with a focus on doing good over profit, and reinvesting profits to do good.

The award ceremony took place on Friday 26th September at Victoria Hall in Keighley, and was hosted by BBC Look North's Paul Hudson. In attendance were the mayor of Keighley, Chris Herd, and local MP Robbie Moore.

Trustee of The Friends of Silsden Town Hall and former chairman of the trustees, Paul Kilgallon, accepted the award on behalf of the Town Hall. In his acceptance speech, Paul dedicated the award to the extensive teams of volunteers that support the charity.

"We could talk about the trading income, operating income and profit, but the truth is, an operation like ours takes a massive volunteer effort, and we have three groups in particular who do a really massive job for us. We have a group of ladies who feed the over-75s in Silsden twice a year. We feed 160 people, and they organise everything; they're absolutely brilliant. We have the History Group, who run the Silsden Archive and buy art from recognised Silsden artists and put it on display. Then we have the bar team, who look after the very commercial part of our business, which is how we make the bulk of our money, and without them, we simply couldn't do what we do. So I'd like to dedicate this award to our volunteers. They're brilliant." - Paul Kilgallon

The Friends of Silsden Town Hall has been a charity for almost ten years, since it took over the building from the council in 2017. Since then, it has continued to deliver its mission, "to promote the health and well-being of the residents of Silsden and the surrounding area through the provision of facilities which encourage educational, sporting, and social recreational activities in Silsden Town Hall for all age groups.", mirroring the original message set out by Lord Hothfield 130 years ago.

"This building is not for this generation only but it is intended to go down future generations for the cultural enrichment of the community." - Lord Hothfield

Silsden Town Hall continues to serve the people of Silsden, and is served by the people of Silsden. Every class you take part in, concert you attend, room you hire, and engagement you have with Silsden Town Hall helps us to keep its doors open. It is a community effort, maintained by a team of dedicated volunteers, who we are pleased to recognise in the receipt of this award.