125 Years Ago - 1890 From the official quarterly report it appears that in the sub-district of Addingham the births numbered 25 last quarter, and in the previous one they were 18; the deaths numbered 13, and these were three less than what was anticipated. In last June and September the principle zymotics were not represented, and in last September there was only one of diarrhoea.

At the West Riding Police Court, held at Leeds Town Hall on Tuesday, Mr Rolls, school attendance officer at Horsforth, took out summonses against eight persons for not sending their children regularly to school.

100 Years Ago - 1915 Bombadier Harry Driver, of the 5th Battalion Royal Garrison Artillery, in a letter to his parents Mr and Mrs Driver, of the Toll Bar House, Addingham, says: “I have received your tobacco and ‘fags’, also your parcel of cocoa etc. I must thank you very much for both parcels which are very acceptable. We are living in an old bakehouse in the middle of a field, and we are nice and comfortable considering. We shall have a good treat tonight, out of our parcels. There was a big attack on yesterday, but I think we got the best of them. The Germans haven’t done much attacking lately, but you should hear the firing when they do make one. We have given them plenty of lyddite to go on with, and by all accounts they lost heavily yesterday. I don’t know how much longer they are going to stick it.

The following letter is printed as it was received: Dear Peter, now that I know the name of the ‘lady’ who remarked ‘only the scum had enlisted,’ I would very much like to know under which heading she classes her sons. If others are the scum they must be the dregs. I rather think she will already know that scum rises to the top, whereas the dregs always remain at the bottom.

75 Years Ago - 1940 One of the last links which modern Ilkley had with the days when it was a tiny thatched village surrounded by long stretches of green fields and solitary farmsteads was removed on Friday by the death of Mrs Ann Robinson, at her residence in Tivoli Place, at the age of 91. Mrs Robinson was the daughter of Mr William Lancaster, who kept a bakery and grocery shop immediately opposite the Ilkley Parish Church where Mr Parkinson’s dairy is now. Her father was a native of the village, and her grandfather occupied Hill Top Farm which stood where the Leeds Workpeople’s Convalescent home now stands near the junction of Keighley Gate and Panorama Drive.

A number of people are asking for guidance on the problem of how much to save and on what to spend. It is not practicable to lay down hard and fast rules. The good citizen will master his own problem after he has studied the position of the country in respect of overseas trade as described from time to time by Government spokesmen. Common sense is the best guide. We know that goods which come to this country from overseas have to be carried by our seamen under the constant threat of a brutal and unscrupulous enemy.

50 Years Ago - 1965 Patients at Otley General Hospital have been provided with a portable telephone service they can use from their beds by the presentation of a telephone trolley to the hospital on Monday by the Ladies’ Hospital Group. The trolley is the first of its kind at the Otley hospital. It consists of a telephone with the normal dialling system mounted on wheels.

Experiences in the wartime resistance movement in France were described by Mrs Maureen Alvey, of Menston, to Otley Ladies Circle at a dinner meeting on Monday. She was thanked by Mrs Elsie Whiteley for an enthralling description of her training and work as a radio operator.

25 Years Ago - 1990 Yorkshire folk like their fish and chips. They have been brought up on haddock or cod and chips and enjoy them best straight from the paper. Now salmon and chips could rival the popular dish at Harry Ramsden’s Fish and Chip shop at White Cross, Guiseley. For whole fresh salmon is now cheaper in the wholesale markets than cod or haddock which are in short supply. Harry Ramsden’s is now testing salmon fillets with an eye on the future.

A period of quiet weather ended on the 23rd of the month, with heavy rain followed by an unexpected light fall of snow causing havoc to road traffic. The snow, which soon melted, produced congestion and delays out of all proportion.