125 Years Ago - 1891

On Tuesday a pleasure party of about 20 gentlemen, many of whom were Roman Catholic priests, visited Bolton Abbey. One of them, wishing to cross the Strid, attempted to jump over a little above the place where it is usual to cross from the north to the south side. He alighted upon the rock but fell into the stream, which at that place is most dangerous. Fortunately, he was not carried under, and with the aid of drags and other appliances he was got out.

On Saturday evening last in Yeadon as Reuben Teale, carter, in the employ of John Baker, Henshaw Lane Head, was attending to his horses, one of them kicked him on the face, knocking out four of his teeth, and fracturing his jawbone.

100 Years Ago - 1916

A telegram received on Wednesday noon by Mr and Mrs G S Phillips, Station Hotel, Guiseley, contained the sad new that their son, Private G W Phillips has passed away at St John's Hospital, Etaples, the cause being multiple shrapnel wounds. Earlier letters had conveyed the information that Pte. Phillips, who was a despatch rider, had been hit on July 5th whilst riding his machine, but that his wounds were not serious, and that, as a matter of fact, he had, after being struck by the shot, walked a mile to the dressing station. The arrival of the telegram, therefore, came as a great shock to the family. Death took place on the hospital named on the 8th inst.

Private Patrick Devaney, a well-known Otley man, writing under the date of July 2nd to Mrs Kilmartin says: - "We got into billets about 6am this morning from the trenches, after the most exciting day I ever had in my life. I suppose you will have seen in the papers that there has been a lot of fighting, and I may tell you we have been in the very thick of it. Our mob had the honour of being the first two regiments in our division to lead the attack, and you can guess we were pleased, although we knew quite well a lot of us would never get back; but still a fellow doesn't let that trouble him. Our Artillery didn't half give them some stick, and of course Fritz didn't let them all have it their own way.

75 Years Ago - 1941

Once again the housewife has been faced with the job of re-registration. This time it was rather more complicated than before, but to offset this most of us are now getting quite skilful at filling in the various details needed to secure our food supplies. One new feature is that this time the housewife has to buy jam at the same shop as sugar, and her cooking fats at the same shop as her butter and margarine. This regulation will help in cutting down 'shop crawling'.

How long there has been a Maypole at Otley is difficult to say, but it was said when the present pole was reared, that it was the fifth within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. This was a "hale old man of 84," who related that the first Maypole he could recollect, which had stood for some 40 or 50 years, was blown down. Three others shared a similar fate, and the fourth, was the one fractured by lightning in 1871.

50 Years Ago - 1966

Not unnaturally the talking point this week has been the removal of the Brook Street Bridge. It was in 1887 that the bridge was complete, and in July of that year the first engine crossed it. Since then the structure has been an object of criticism by residents and by visitors.

Miss Jean Pegg, of Ilkley, gave a most absorbing account of her travels and experiences during a visit of almost two years to Norway at a meeting of the Rombalds Trefoil Guild on Tuesday. She spoke of her life in a Norwegian home in Bergen, "the city of mountains and lakes".

25 Years Ago - 1991

FIREFIGHTERS from Rawdon undertook an unusual task this week. They were called to Farnley Road, Menston, where a horse had got its foot stuck in an empty milk crate. A spokesman for the brigade said the firefighters had to cut the milk crate from the horse's foot.

Students at Ilkley Grammar School are helping a book-starved Russian School. Back in February the Sociology Department organised a trip to a Moscow school - and after finding that the school's only means of teaching English was by way of a single copy of an out of date book, the Ilkley contingent set about organising a fund to help them.